Son of the General: Season One
by SlashFan2018
Summary: Slate Ironwood, son of General James Ironwood of Atlas. Somehow, after a tragic incident four years ago, he went missing, and now, he's the adoptive son of infamous tribeswoman Raven Branwen, and a student at Beacon Academy! What? Why? How? Let's find out! This is Slate's (and his team's) story.
1. Chapter 1

**Anything you recognise isn't mine.**

In the city of Mistral, which was situated around, on and inside one of the largest mountains on the continent of Anima, a certain specialist of the Atlesian Military's Special Operatives Unit walked through a quieter part of the city in the upper regions.

This certain specialist was a tall young woman with a fair skin complexion, white hair and light blue eyes. Her hair was tied up in a bun at the rear left corner of her head, causing her bangs to fall towards the right side of her face, and leaving a small curled lock of hair that reached below her left ear.

As this was her day off, and as the day was warm, she wore a light blue dress and white, knee-length boots.

Tucking a strand of hair beside her ear, Winter Schnee turned a corner and walked towards a food shop that she had grown fond of during her time in Mistral (she was stationed in the city of Argus, alongside her fellow Spec Ops specialist, Caroline Cordovin), and entered the shop, ordering some sushi fried rice.

After her meal (which was very nice), Winter left the shop and made to walk back to the hotel room she had been provided by the Council of Mistral, but she found herself not looking where she was going, and walking directly into someone.

"Oof!" the someone (who Winter instantly recognised, by the sound of their voice, as male) groaned, and Winter looked down at the person, who had landed on the ground.

The person who she had bumped into was a teenage boy (looking to be around the same age as Winter's younger sister, Weiss Schnee), with black, spiky hair, solid black eyebrows and light green eyes. He wore a black t-shirt with the left sleeve ripped off (Winter saw a scar on the boy's left shoulder) and a pair of black trousers. The boy was carrying a bag, which he had dropped when he had bumped into Winter.

"Sorry." the boy said as he picked himself up. When he got to his feet, Winter saw that he was only slightly shorter than she was. Barely a few inches, if that.

"It's fine." Winter replied. "Watch where you're going next time."

"Yeah. I will." The boy replied, as he looked around to check if anything had fallen out of his bag. Evidently, nothing had.

"You look like you could be school-age." Winter spoke, calmly, as she regarded the boy, who turned back to her. "Do you plan to attend a Huntsman Academy?"

"Yeah." the boy replied, scratching an itch on his shoulder. "I'm heading to Beacon in a couple of days."

"I see." Winter replied, as she recalled how Weiss had received her results on her entrance exam into Beacon Academy, and passed, earning her a place at the Academy.

"Well, see you." the boy spoke, turning around. "Sorry for bumping into you." As he walked away, Winter's eyes followed him, and they widened slightly when she saw something on the boy's right sleeve.

It was an emblem. She couldn't fully tell from where she was standing, but from where she was standing, it looked somewhat like the emblem emblazoned on the uniform and clothes of those enrolled into the YAMP (Young Atlesians' Military Program), which was the emblem of Atlas (an ornate spear enclosed in a circle) with the letters Y, A, M and P, coloured a light blue, around it, just outside the circle.

Winter followed the boy, trying to get a good look at his right sleeve, and a few streets later, she got a good look. The emblem on his arm... was the YAMP emblem!

"Hey!" Winter called out to the boy, who jumped slightly, and looked around.

"Yeah?" he asked. "What's up?" he looked into Winter's eyes, and saw where she was looking: at his right arm. "Oh boy." he muttered, too quiet for anyone but himself to hear, and promptly took off.

Winter was quick to give chase, rushing into the street that the boy had dashed into, and looking right (which was the direction he had shot off in), but alas, she was unable to pick him out among the crowd of people that were walking around.

To be fair, even if she was able to pick him out, her dress wasn't exactly the best attire to be chasing someone around in, so instead, Winter pulled her scroll out of her dress, and punched in a certain number.

Holding it up to her ear, she waited, until the sound of someone picking up their scroll on the other end could be heard.

"Hello?" the sound of General James Ironwood sounded. "Do you have something to report, Schnee?"

"Not exactly, General." Winter replied, her voice as formal as ever. "But I think I've found something you'll be interested in."

 **Line Break**

An hour after his encounter with Winter in the city, the boy, whose name was Slate, could be seen walking through a forest in the north of Mistral. He was wearing a grey coat on top of the shirt he wore, as it was colder here than in the city.

Slate heard the call of a bird above him, and he looked up, noticing a raven flying over him. A small smile crossed his lips as the raven swooped down behind a tree. However, instead of the bird flying out from behind the tree, a woman emerged from behind the tree instead.

This woman wore a shallow cut black and red dress, five necklaces with an assortment of beads, a red girdle-belt, and a pair of matching gauntlets, along with fingerless gloves.

An object that looked to be made from feathers hangs from the right side of her skirt. She also wore detached black leggings with a red splatter pattern. Under her leggings, she wore black boots that had red high heels and soles. Her most distinctive feature was a fearsome, full-face mask that resembled the face of a Creature of Grimm. The mask had four eye slits, further enhancing her inhuman appearance.

"Slate." the woman spoke, from underneath her mask. "I see you got that coat."

"I did." Slate replied, shrugging. "Hopefully this one won't get torn to shreds by a Beowolf."

The woman chuckled as she removed her mask. Underneath her mask, it was shown that the woman had long jet-black hair with red highlights, high eyebrows, a light skin complexion and slight age-lines under her eyes. Her eyes were a crimson red, and her hair was tied by a red bandanna and loosely done up in a ponytail with the ends resembling curved black feathers. A cowlick could be seen protruding from the top of her head.

"I certainly hope not." Raven Branwen replied, as she walked towards her adopted son. "Let's get back to the camp."

Slate and Raven walked silently through the forest, and after a few minutes, arrived at an area which was walled by large logs, presumably cut from trees in the surrounding area. Tents lined the edge of the area, and small fires were dotted around the camp, which some members of the Branwen Tribe (a group of bandits that were led by Raven herself) were sat around, talking, playing card games and occasionally munching on some fruit or meat.

When Slate reached the middle of the camp, a tent close to the biggest one (Slate and Raven's own tent), opened up, and someone stepped out.

This someone was a girl that appeared to be the same age as Slate, with white hair and hazel eyes. The front of her hair had two long bangs going past her shoulders, and several loose bangs hanging over her forehead, while the back was in a short bob cut.

She wore a white, v-neck, zip-up crop shirt with a grey hem, and ¾ sleeves. She wore grey pants that had a vertical white stripe on the outer side of each leg and a black belt.

Attached to the rear of the belt was a grey piece of fabric that covered her from hip to hip. Underneath this was a longer, translucent, white piece of fabric. She also wore black high-heeled boots with two straps and buckles, and dark yellow undersoles, reaching to mid-calf.

"Slate!" Eirwen Belladonna, a fellow tribe-member and Slate's girlfriend, called, as she kissed her boyfriend.

"Hey, Eirwen." Slate smiled, accepting Eirwen's kiss as Raven walked past the pair of them, into her tent. Slate and Eirwen looked at each other, and followed.

"You have all your stuff ready?" Raven asked her adoptive son and his girlfriend, when the two of them were in the tent.

"I do." Slate replied, grabbing a suitcase (that had been given to him by Raven after one of the tribe's missions in one of the smaller towns close by).

"Eirwen?"

"Uh..." Eirwen slowly backed away from Raven, who looked at her expectantly. "I'll be right back!" she then dashed out of the tent, and Raven sighed. Slate chuckled as Eirwen dashed back into the tent, her own suitcase with her.

"Good." Raven replied, as an ovular shape consisting of swirling black and red energy appeared beside her. "Off you go. Have a good term at Beacon."

"We will, Mom." Slate replied. Raven silently watched Slate and Eirwen leave through the portal, and allowed it to close behind them.

On the other end of the portal, Slate and Eirwen jumped out of it, and landed in what looked like downtown Vale. There seemed to be no-one around except for a lone, blonde woman riding towards a nightclub on a motorcycle, as she passed Slate and Eirwen.

"What was the hotel we're booked at called again?" Slate asked.

"Arc Hotel, I believe." Eirwen replied, looking around. "Hey, there it is." She and Slate began to walk towards the large building, and after a few minutes, entered, pulling their suitcases behind them.

When they entered, they were greeted at the front desk by a blonde woman with glasses, who Slate could see was named 'Aine Arc'.

"Hi!" she greeted Slate and Eirwen cheerily. "Can I help you?"

"Yeah." Eirwen replied. "We've got a room booked. Slate Branwen and Eirwen Belladonna."

"I see." Aine replied as she looked on a computer for a second. "Here we are." she declared, reaching into a drawer and pulling out a key-card. "Your room is room 103. Just take the elevator up to the second floor, go through the first door on your left, and it's the second door on your right after that. Can't miss it."

"Thanks." Eirwen replied, as she and Slate headed off (ignoring Aine's giggles, as she evidently guessed that Eirwen and Slate were a couple). After a few minutes, they arrived at their room, which Eirwen unlocked. When they entered, they saw that there were two beds, a sofa and a TV.

Eirwen pushed her suitcase off to the side, and jumped onto the nearest bed.

"Ahh~ so comfy~" she rolled around in it for a moment, before looking up at Slate. "Care to join me, Slate?"

"In a bit." Slate replied, looking through another door and finding a bathroom in there. "I'm gonna shower."

"Okay, then." Eirwen replied, stripping out of her outfit and changing it for a translucent white nightgown that was in her suitcase. After changing, she sat on the bed that she had claimed for her own, and waited for her boyfriend to exit the bathroom.

 **Line Break**

"What do you mean you think you've seen him?" General James Ironwood cried, as he sat in his office and glared at his Scroll, which was lying on the desk and showing a hologram of Winter, who had just told him that she thought she had seen Slate.

Ironwood was a well-dressed and clean man, wearing a white overcoat, with a grey undercoat, black sweater, red necktie and a white glove on his right hand. His suit pants shared the same colour as his overcoat and were tucked into silver boots accented in grey. His hair was black, with some silvery-grey areas, while his eyebrows were solid black. He had a strip of silver metal above his right eyebrow, and had blue eyes.

"I mean exactly what I said, that I thought I saw Slate in Mistral today." Winter replied, her professional mask slipping slightly. "Though it was torn, I recognised his shirt as one that he wore on..." Winter faltered for a second, before recomposing herself. "That day. What do you plan to do?"

"I don't know, Schnee." Ironwood replied, looking down. "You said he was going to Beacon, right?"

"He said he was." Winter replied. Ironwood's brow furrowed.

"Then I'll call Ozpin." he spoke. "If I remember correctly, initiation there starts in a couple of days, so after that, I'll call him. See if I can arrange a time that I can come over and see Slate. If, of course, he's there. Thank you for telling me this, Winter."

"It is my honour, sir." Winter replied, bowing, before hanging up. Ironwood sat back in his chair, and after a second, pulled open a drawer in his desk, and pulled out a framed photo, that showed him (when he still had both arms) and an eleven-year-old Slate, who was dressed in the YAMP (Young Atlesians Military Program) uniform.

Slate Ironwood was a good little child, before that day, when Winter reported that Slate had disappeared during an expedition in Mistral, and presumed dead. But now, the news that he was alive...

'Well' Ironwood thought, as he put the picture back into the drawer of his desk, and sighed. 'When I meet Slate again, I'm going to have a few questions for him!'

 **Line Break**

It was the next day, in the afternoon hours, to be precise, and Slate and Eirwen, after having checked out of the hotel (in the aftermath of an... interesting night together), suitcases in hand, were walking towards a Bullhead, which was docked in downtown Vale. There were other people around Slate's age that were walking towards the Bullhead as well, handing documents to a tall woman with peach-coloured hair.

There were a lot of people standing around calling out to the students, which made Slate shuffle around slightly awkwardly as he and Eirwen walked up to the woman, with their own documents in hand.

"Transcripts?" she asked, looking down at Slate and Eirwen. They handed them to her, and she looked them over.

"Okay, looks good." She nodded to them, and allowed them to step into the aerial vehicle, where other people were stood around chatting. Eirwen then proceeded to hug Slate.

"I can't believe I get to come to Beacon with my mate~" she smiled, resting her head on her boyfriend's chest. However, the peaceful moment was interrupted when a large boy with burnt-orange hair scoffed at the pair of them.

"Keep it in the bedroom, animal." he remarked, walking past and laughing to himself. Eirwen was unmoved by the remark, but she appreciated the sound of "Hey, shut up!" coming from someone else, who she and Slate both turned towards.

The person who evidently told the boy to shut up was a fair-skinned young woman with lilac eyes and bright golden hair, which was worn loose and faded to pale gold at the tips, with a cowlick sticking out of the top. She wore a tan jacket that bore her midriff, with golden brown piping and short, puffy sleeves with black cuffs that featured two gold buttons, and underneath this, she wore a low-cut yellow crop-top with a fiery emblem on the left breast in black.

She also wore a brown belt covered by a pleated brown piece of material reaching from hip to hip around the back of her waist, with her emblem emblazoned on the right-most pleat in gold. Underneath this was a longer, white, asymmetrical piece of material reaching to her knee on the right side, as well as a pair of black mini-shorts. She wore a pair of brown, knee-high boots and orange over-the-knee socks, with the right sock pushed down just below the knee. A purplish-grey bandanna was tied around her left knee. An orange infinity scarf and black fingerless gloves completed her outfit.

Next to her was another girl, this girl was fair-skinned and had silver eyes (something that Slate immediately took notice of), along with black, neck-length choppy hair that gradated to dark red at the tips.

She wears a black long-sleeved dress with a high collar and red trim on the sleeves, a black waist cincher with red lacing up the front, and around her skirt has a red trim. She also wears a pair of thick black stockings and black combat boots with red laces, red trim around the top and red soles.

Her outfit was topped by a red hooded cloak fastened to her shoulders by cross-shaped pins. Her emblem, which looked like the head of a rose, appeared as a large silver brooch and was pinned to a wide black belt slung around her hips on an angle, which also carries bullets and a pouch.

"Thanks." Slate looked at the blonde woman (who he recognised as the one on the motorcycle from last night). "I would've beaten the hell out of him."

"Tempting, I know." the blonde woman replied, as she glared at the orange-haired boy, who was talking to someone else. "Can't stand people like him." she looked back at Slate and Eirwen. "I'm Yang by the way, and the cutie here is Ruby." She wrapped her arms around Ruby and squeezed her in a hug, and Ruby groaned, trying to get out of Yang's grip.

"Siiiis~ stop it!" she cried, eventually pushing herself out of Yang's grip.

"Eirwen." Eirwen replied, sniggering slightly at the scene before her. "And this is Slate. My boyfriend."

"Damnit." Yang muttered, under her breath, as she looked at Slate. "Well, nice to meet you Slate."

"Same." Slate replied. The two shook hands.

"Hey, what's with those massive suitcases?" Ruby asked, pointing down at the suitcases next to Slate and Eirwen. "You know you could've had them delivered to Beacon a few days ago, right?"

"You could?" Slate blinked. "Didn't know that. Besides." he added, as Ruby gave a small "Oh." as reply. "I like to keep my stuff with me, thank you very much."

"Doesn't explain why they're so big, though." Yang remarked. "Don't try to say that you brought all of your clothes to Beacon, along with the closet itself."

"No, we didn't." Eirwen replied. "We just brought a little project my boyfriend and I've been working on. Should help with fighting Grimm."

"Fair enough." Yang shrugged.

"Speaking of fighting," Ruby perked up. "What've you got? ...Weapons?" she added.

"Swords." Slate replied, calmly. "Simple stuff."

Ruby hummed, and turned to Eirwen.

"I got a sword that can segment itself so I use it like a whip." she said. "Gives me a bit extra range, you know?"

"Cool!" Ruby replied, smiling. "So you're both up close and personal fighters, huh?"

"Pretty much." Slate shrugged. "That a problem?"

"Nope." Ruby replied. "Yang's one, too."

Ruby, Yang, Slate and Eirwen all talked until the Bullhead landed on a large cliff, and everyone disembarked. Ignoring the sight of a blonde, blue-eyed boy rushing to the nearest trash can and unloading the contents of his stomach into it, the four of them got off, and went their separate ways.

As they walked towards the entrance of Beacon Academy, which looked more like a castle than a school, Slate mused "Welcome to Beacon."

 **Hey there, writers and readers alike. For those who don't know, as this is my first RWBY fanfiction ever, I'm SlashFan2018, who you might know as a DxD writer.**

 **It's kinda a little-known fact that I'm a pretty damn big RWBY fan (having followed the show since the middle of Volume 2, which is actually my favourite volume of the show (besides Volume 6. Or what we've got of it so far, that is), and I've always had a few ideas knocking around in the giant, crazy space that one calls my head for possible fanfics to write on RWBY.**

 **And now, I've found one that I think you'll like. This story focuses on Slate Ironwood (or Slate Branwen), the son of General Ironwood (who doesn't really need an introduction), but through unknown circumstances, which will be revealed later, he was eventually adopted by Raven Branwen (who also doesn't really need any introduction). Now, years later, he's attending Beacon Academy with his girlfriend, Eirwen Belladonna! And yes, Eirwen is related to Blake.**

 **As for Slate's mother, she's a character RWBY fans will already know about. And that's all I'm gonna say.**

 **The other two members of Slate's team (the first two members are Slate and Eirwen) will be revealed in the coming chapters.**

 **And though those who know me as an author will know I'm comfortable with writing harems, I'm not too sure whether or not I should give Slate a harem this time around. If you want it, let me know. I've got a few candidates in mind as to who would become his lovers, besides Eirwen.**

 **Now that that's done, what did you think of this first chapter? Please, review and let me know, because I really do love hearing feedback. If you fancy letting me know about some possible ideas you might have for later in the story, just let me know in a review or PM (or talk to me on Discord (my name for it is on my profile)), as I really enjoy talking to readers!**

 **Next Time: Other two Team Members, Initiation Part 1**

 **Preview of Next Chapter:**

" _Hm." Slate muttered to himself. "Weiss is still the same Ice Queen I knew from four years ago."_

 **See you!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Anything you recognise isn't mine.**

Sticking close to each other, Slate and Eirwen walked into a large main hall, where most of the students that had been on the Bullhead with them were gathered. There were rows of seats in the upper areas of the room, and students (whom Slate could only assume had been here already) were sat in them.

"Pretty cramped, huh?" Slate remarked to Eirwen, who was also looking around for spots.

"Yeah, sure seems that way." Eirwen replied. "Hey, I can see somewhere free." Grabbing her boyfriend by the hand, Eirwen pulled Slate off, and the two of them found themselves close to two more people, a boy and a girl.

The boy looked to be in his late-teens, just like everyone there (with the exception of Ruby, who Slate hadn't seen enter the hall). He had blue hair that went down to his ears, and dark green eyes, which rested behind a pair of half-rimmed blue glasses. He wore a light blue jacket with black accents and black pants with a light-blue stripe down each side. He also wore thick gloves.

The girl looked like she was the same age as the blue-haired boy. She had long, light-purple hair and blue eyes. She wore a purple crop top, which had rectangular and diamond-shaped cut-outs around the neckline, as well as loose purple pants that were tied up at her ankles and at her waist. Matching these were purple sleeves, separated from her crop top, which she wore on her arms, and were lightly tied at her wrists.

"Excuse me." Eirwen spoke to the blue-haired boy. "Mind if we stand near you?"

"Not at all." the boy replied. The purple-haired girl remained silent.

"Thanks." Eirwen replied, as she and Slate stood next to each other, just in time for the Headmaster of Beacon Academy, Professor Ozpin, to step up to a microphone and tap it. The sound of Ozpin's tap echoed throughout the hall, causing everyone who was talking to each other to stop, damn near instantly.

Ozpin was a middle-aged man with tousled silver hair and thin brown eyes. He had a light complexion with sharp facial features, along with black eyebrows. He wore shaded glass spectacles and a small, purple, cross-shaped pin on the cowl around his neck. His outfit mainly consisted of an unzipped black suit over a dark green buttoned vest and green shirt. He also wore black trouser shoes and long, dark-green pants. Along with that, he also carried a cane.

"Attention, students." Ozpin called, though attention had already been thoroughly gained at this point. "I'll... keep this brief. You have travelled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people."

Slate rolled his eyes.

'Fat chance.' he thought.

"But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy." Ozpin continued. "In need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far... it is up to you to take the first step. Thank you."

There was only silence as Ozpin walked away from the microphone, allowing someone else to walk up to it, a woman.

This person was a middle-aged woman that had very light blonde hair, tied back in a bun with a curl hanging down on the right side of her face. Her eyes were bright green, similar to Slate's, and she wore thin ovular glasses. She had dangling teal earrings that matched the hanging pendant on her collar.

She wore a white long-sleeved pleated top that had a white keyhole neckline and gauntlet cuffs that flared in pleats at the wrist. Her lower body was covered by a black high-waisted pencil skirt with bronze buttons and black-brown stockings. She wore black boots with bronze heels, and a cape that was purple inside and black on the outside. The cut of the cape was stylized to end in flames and arrows, with a row a diamond-shaped bronze beads on the back. Above this line, there was an emblem of a tiara. At the top of her right boot, what looked like a riding crop was collapsed and attached there.

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight." the woman spoke to all the students standing below her, as the other students who were sat in the upper stands began to file out. She spoke in a strict, professional sort of way. "Tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are now dismissed."

Slate and Eirwen followed everyone else out of the hall, as they came across Ruby and Yang.

"Hey." Yang greeted Slate as she hurried over to him (Ruby quickly followed, whining about how Yang was always leaving her behind). "Am I the only one who thought that Ozpin seemed kinda... off, during that speech?"

"No, you're not." Eirwen replied, putting an arm around Slate. "It's almost like he wasn't even there."

"Hm." Slate merely hummed as he looked down at his scroll. "I was hardly listening the entire time."

"Of course, you wouldn't." Eirwen replied. "Now, I wonder if there's any food?"

 **Line Break**

Several hours later, the shattered moon shone high in the skies of Remnant, and Slate and Eirwen (who had both had thorough meals in the cafeteria) sat on sleeping-bags that had been provided to them, while Eirwen read a book, dressed in seemingly nothing but a thin white negligee and regular white bra and panties.

She had one arm around Slate, who wore nothing but a pair of long black thermal underwear, leaving his muscular chest exposed, and was playing on his scroll, not really tuned into the world around him, which made it come as a bit of a surprise when Yang came walking over to the two of them, wearing an orange tank top with a firey emblem on the front in red, and black boy shorts

"Helloooo~!" she called, happily flopping down onto Slate and Eirwen's bags, right in front of the two of them. Slate only shifted his eyes away from his scroll for a second, to take in the sight of Yang, who staring up at him, a wide smile on her face.

"Hi." he replied, before looking back down at his scroll. Yang shifted herself closer to Slate, grinning at him and the sight of his chest (which seemed to be attracting quite a bit of attention from some others around the ballroom, which all the first-years were sleeping in.

"You two look like you could use a bit of company." Yang remarked. "You mind if I relax a bit with you before you-"

"Back off, Yang." Eirwen cut through Yang's remark, shutting her book with a snap and staring into Yang's face. "Did you forget that Slate is my mate?"

"Sorry." Yang replied. "Was just trying to have a bit of fun. You don't have to get so defensive." The blonde little Dragon winked at Slate, got up and walked over to where Ruby was, as she looked like she was writing something. Slate just rolled his eyes and went back to what he was doing on his Scroll, and only looked up again when he heard the sound of two sleeping bags being set down close to him and Eirwen.

When he looked up, he saw the blue-haired boy, who was dressed in a pair of dark blue pyjamas, and the purple-haired girl, who was dressed in the same purple crop-top as earlier, but she was just wearing a set of purple panties instead of her loose pants from before.

"Hey." the purple-haired girl said. "Mind if we stay here?"

"Nope." Slate replied. "Aren't you the people we were next to earlier?"

"We were." the boy replied, sticking his hand out. "My name's Azzurro, and my girlfriend over here's Lapis."

"Nice to meet you." Eirwen replied, smiling. "I'm Eirwen, and Slate's my boyfriend."

Slate gave an "Mmmhmm." in confirmation of this.

"Well you do look nice together." Azzurro replied, as he sat down on his sleeping bag and looked over at Ruby and Yang, who were arguing with a white-haired girl wearing a faded blue nightgown.

Slate looked over at the source of the commotion, and snorted.

"Hm." Slate muttered to himself. "Weiss is still the same Ice Queen I knew from four years ago." He removed Eirwen's arm from around himself, and, deciding that now would be as good a time as any to put his head down and go to sleep, shifted himself into his sleeping bag.

Eirwen, after seeing what Slate was doing, decided to do the same.

 **Line Break**

"It's morning! It's morning! It's morning, it's morning~!" a young woman with fair skin, short orange hair and turquoise eyes sang as she danced around a pale young man with long black hair and pale pink eyes. As the male sat at a table, eating pancakes, complete with syrup, while seemingly ignoring the orange-haired girl's ramblings.

"I can't believe we've been at Beacon for a full 24 hours! Not that I thought we'd get kicked out or anything, I mean, you're the perfect student, and I'm... well... I'm me! But it's just crazy, you know?"

The orange-haired girl pulled out a hairbrush and began brushing her short hair while the black-haired guy continued to eat his pancakes. Slate, who was idly watching the two of them (while eating a bowl of cereal as the other things looked too rich for his personal tastes), was pretty sure he saw the black-haired boy eying up the orange-haired girl's pancakes as he ate his.

"We've been friends for sooooooo long!" The orange-haired girl continued to blabber. "What are the odds that we'd still be together? Well, not 'together', together..." She suddenly became awkward, before bouncing back to normal. "Not that I'm saying you're not handsom, you ARE handsome, but that'd just be weird, right?"

The orange-haired girl dashed back to the table and began eating her own pancakes at a pace that Slate was honestly amazed by. Even at his absolute best, with help from Eirwen, the two of them couldn't kill even the weakest Beowulf in the time it took the orange-haired girl to tear through her pancakes. As she ate, she continued talking.

"Right! What was I thinking? But still, I hope we end up on the same team together!" She slurped up the rest of her pancake, swallowed it whole, and burped. "Ooohhhh! We should come up with some sort of plan, to make sure we end up on the same team together!" her eyes lit up as she, presumably, had an idea. "What if we bribe the headmaster?" The light in her eyes proceeded to go out for a second as she realised that this plan was stupid. "No, that won't work, he has the school."

The orange-haired girl went quiet for a few seconds, and Slate put another spoonful of cereal in his mouth and began chewing, while Eirwen ate a tuna omelette, idly looking out of the window.

"I know!" the orange-haired girl spoke up. "We'll have some sort of signal! Like a distress signal!" she gasped, evidently shocked by the idea of her own... idea. "A SECRET signal so we can find each other in the forest! Can you imitate a sloth?" she asked the black-haired boy, who had just finished his pancakes.

"Nora?" the boy asked, finally speaking for the first time.

"Yes, Ren?" Nora replied, finally shutting up and listening. Ren stood up and stretched.

"I don't think sloths make a lot of noise." he offered a light criticism to Nora's plan as Nora stood up.

"That's why it's PERFECT!" she replied. "No-one will suspect we're working together!"

Ren smiled, and began walking out of the cafeteria.

"Come on, Nora." he spoke. "Let's go."

Nora giggled to herself as she followed Ren.

"Not 'together', together..." she muttered to herself, giggling as she skipped behind Ren. As they walked out, Ruby and Yang walked in. Yang and Ruby seemed to have some sort of interaction with each other, before they both walked over to where Slate and Eirwen were sat.

"Morning~!" Yang greeted Slate and Eirwen in a cheery voice. "Initiation today!"

"I've heard." Slate replied, as he scooped up the last bits of his cereal and emptied them into his mouth. "Morning to you too, Yang. Hey, Ruby."

"Hi!" Ruby chirped, perching opposite of Slate and humming, looking to be in a good mood.

"Someone's a bit chipper this morning." Eirwen remarked as she finished the last bits of her omelette. "Ah~ that hit the spot~" she moaned in appreciation."

"Yep!" Ruby replied, smiling. "No more awkward small talk or getting-to-know-you stuff! Today, I get to let my sweetheart do the talking~"

"She means her weapon." Yang remarked in a whisper to Slate and Eirwen. "She loves that thing about as much as she loves me, Dad or our Uncle."

"So she's a weaponsexual. Got it." Eirwen replied, making Yang snicker. Ruby heard this and went pink.

"Wh-what?" she blinked, looking confused.

Slate idly shrugged as Eirwen and Yang continued to snicker. Though they stopped, fast, when they heard Glynda's voice coming over the intercom system.

"Would all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation? Again, all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately."

"Well, that's us!" Yang stood up, pulling Ruby up along with her. "Let's go, sis!" she turned to Slate and Eirwen. "See you!" she called, before walking away with Ruby. Everyone else started to walk out of the cafeteria, as Slate and Eirwen stood up.

"Guess we should get going too." Slate remarked. "I think I saw some signposts outside."

"Yeah, same here." Eirwen replied, as she and Slate walked out. As they left the cafeteria, Slate cast an idle glance at Weiss, who was having a conversation with a red-haired girl. "Wait. Should we get to our lockers first?"

"Crap." Slate smacked his forehead. "I almost forgot."

 **Line Break**

It took about ten minutes for everyone to make their way to the top of Beacon Cliff, where Professor Ozpin and the blonde-haired woman from earlier (whose name, Slate knew from back on the Bullhead, was Glynda Goodwitch) were stood in front of them. Everyone seemed to be paying attention, with the half-exceptions of Slate and Eirwen, who were finishing strapping small devices to their backs and fixing cartridges of cyan Dust into them.

"And there we go!" Eirwen muttered, pushing the final cartridge of Dust into her own device, and tightening the straps around her waist and shoulders. "You all set, Slate?"

"As set as you are." Slate replied, as Glynda called for quiet. Ozpin then proceeded to begin talking.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." Glynda continued for him as he took a sip of whatever was in his mug.

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumours about the assignment of teams. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... today."

Everyone remained silent, though Slate heard Ruby muttering "What? Oh..."

"These teammates," Ozpin spoke. "Will be with you for the rest of your time at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well." he then paused. "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

There were murmurings all around, as well as a few short cries of shock from certain students, but nothing could compare to Ruby's yell of "Whaaaat?!"

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die."

Slate and Eirwen were both unmoved by Ozpin's words, though Nora's enthusiastic grin didn't go unnoticed by anyone.

"You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several artefacts. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

Jaune raised his hand.

"Yeah, um, sir-?"

"Good!" Ozpin cut across him, in a decisive manner. "Now, take your positions."

One by one, all the students were launched into the air. Weiss, Nora, the orange-haired boy who had called Eirwen an animal, Yang, Ruby and Eirwen were amongst those who were flung into the air before Slate found himself suddenly flung into the air by some launchers that had been concealed in the ground.

 **Line Break**

After recovering from the initial shock of being flung into the air so suddenly, Slade managed to land safely on a tree-branch that was sturdy enough to support his weight. and draw two straight swords from scabbards that were strung to his sides.

Looking down to the forest floor, Slate noticed a lone Beowulf Grimm stalking through the forest. The Beowolf had a bone-like mask on its face with red markings, characteristic of most Grimm, as well as bone-like spikes protruding from its arms, back and knees. Its hands and feet were also tipped with long, sharp, white claws. This particular Beowolf looked, from where Slate was standing to be about his size, but it didn't matter.

Slate knew how to deal with Beowolves faster than one could say 'Facts don't care about your feelings'.

When the Beowulf moved a couple of steps past Slate, he jumped down silently, and fast as anything, drove his swords into the Beowulf's back, in between the spikes on its back, causing the Grimm to shriek out in pain, right as a red-eyed bird landed on the very branch Slate had been standing on, seconds before.

Slate pulled his swords out of the Beowulf's back, and as it turned around, he prepared to lope its head off with one quick slice, but unfortunately, someone beat him to it, but in a more brutal fashion.

Several fragments of a sword, which were all attached to each other via a strong string that could expand and retract based on inputs made in the hilt by the user, were quickly wrapped around the neck of the Beowulf from behind, and as it raised its claws to try and free itself, it went flying backwards, and as the snake-sword shifted back into its sword-form, the Beowulf's head came flying off, and faded into black powder soon after, as did its body.

"Nice one, Eirwen." Slate complimented his girlfriend, as Eirwen stepped through the black powder, brushing it off her clothes as she sheathed her sword and smiled at her boyfriend.

"Thank you." she replied, jogging up to him and giving him a peck on the lips. "Better me as a partner than Yang."

The red-eyed bird that was watching the two Huntsmen-in-training seemed to give a caw of agreement.

 **And that's the second chapter of Son of the General! Slate and Eirwen have entered Beacon Academy, and are now in their initiation! And yes, for anyone who's seen Volumes 4 or 5 of RWBY, that bird who caw'd in agreement at what Eirwen said was Raven. She'll be showing up from time to time in bird-form, and sometimes in human-form.**

 **Now, regarding the ever-present topic that seems to come up in my fics: Should Slate have a harem? Well, I'm not fully sure whether he should or not yet, but if yes, his harem will probably be something like: Eirwen, Winter and Sienna Khan (the HOT AS FUCK leader of the White Fang before Adam (Rest in Pieces Adam, no-one will miss you) turned her into a fucking kebab). I might add Neo on top of that, but I'm not sure yet.**

 **By the way, my next updates will be a double-update of my HP/DxD fic 'The Roar of Kyoto's Wizarding Lion', which will be the final two chapters of that fic. I'M ACTUALLY GOING TO FIND IT IN MYSELF TO FINISH THAT FIC, SINCE I'VE BEEN HOLDING OFF ON IT SO LONG BECAUSE I'M LOSING INTEREST IN HARRY POTTER FASTER THAN YOU CAN SAY 'J.K. ROWLING IS A FUCKING BITCH'!**

 **Anyway, n** **ow that that's done, what did you think of this chapter? Please, review and let me know, because I really do love hearing feedback. If you fancy letting me know about some possible ideas you might have for later in the story, just let me know in a review or PM (or talk to me on Discord (my name for it is on my profile)), as I really enjoy talking to readers!**

 **Next Time: End of Initiation, A Tense Call**

 **Preview of Next Chapter:**

" _From this day forward, the four of you shall work together as Team SEAL." Ozpin declared to Slate, Eirwen, Azzurro and Lapis. "Led by... Slate Branwen."_

 **Seeya!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Anything you recognise isn't mine.**

As the red-eyed bird who was watching Slate and Eirwen flapped its wings and left the scene, Slate and Eirwen walked through the Emerald Forest, bored out of their minds as no Grimm had come out to attack them in the last five minutes.

"You sure this is the way to the so-called temple?" Slade asked Eirwen.

"I did some scouting before I came back and found you." Eirwen replied. "We're going in the fight direction."

Slate shrugged.

"Anyone see you?" he asked, gesturing to the device on Eirwen's back.

"Nah." Eirwen replied. "Duh. Else I wouldn't be with you~" Eirwen then leaned sideways towards her boyfriend and hugged his arm, gently pressing it against her bosom.

"Fair enough." Slate replied, gently pulling his arm away from Eirwen as he heard the sound of leaves rustling. Eirwen heard this too, and readied her sword, but this was an unneeded gesture, as Yang and Blake were revealed to be the causes of the noise, as they stepped out of the bushes seconds later.

"Hey." Yang was the first to greet Slate, smiling at the black-haired sword-wielder, who nodded back. Blake, who had presumably drawn a katana earlier, given that it was in her hand and raised, lowered said katana, and looked slightly uncomfortably at Eirwen, who deliberately avoided her look. "So, you two are partners, huh?"

"Yup." Eirwen replied, smirking at Yang. "Jealous?"

"Slightly." Yang smirked in reply. "Hopefully we'll end up on a team together."

Slate didn't reply, and neither did Eirwen. Both of them continued walking in the direction of the temple (at least according to Eirwen), and after looking at each other and shrugging, Yang and Blake followed, while making conversation with each other.

Though it seemed that Yang was mostly the one doing the conversing.

"The black-haired girl." Slate looked sideways at Eirwen. "That the one you were talking about? Blake?"

"Yeah." Eirwen replied. "I'm not sure what she's doing here, though. Last I saw her, she was all lovey-dovey with... him." Eirwen scowled at the thought of the man in her mind, a man who'd managed to make Blake follow him with his sweet words about 'justice' and 'doing what's right for the Faunus'.

But those thoughts left her mind as Slate reached out, gently took her hand in his, and rubbed the back of it, something that he did when he knew she was stressed. The black-haired boy gave his white-haired girlfriend a soothing smile as the two of them reached the top of an incline, and looked down upon some ruins.

"Here we are." Eirwen declared, as she jumped down into the 'Temple', with Slate, Yang and Blake following.

The Temple seemed to mostly consist of the broken ruins of a rotunda. Three of the columns were broken and lay around the area in pieces. There were five stone columns still standing that held up a circle of stones.

The floor of the structure bore a symmetrical design. Behind the Temple there were additional ruins, consisting of a long stone pillar-lined walkway leading to a steeple in a chasm.

"Chess pieces...?" Blake muttered, taking in the sight of black and white chess pieces, one piece on each of the little platforms arranged around the temple.

"Some of them are missing." Yang remarked. "Looks like we weren't the first ones here."

"How astute of you." Slate remarked, sarcasm lining his voice. Yang smirked at him, seemingly ignoring the sarcasm.

"I guess we should pick one." Blake looked around. Yang looked around, humming as she picked up the white Knight piece.

"How about a cute little pony?" she asked, looking at Blake with a smile. Blake, surprisingly, returned the gesture.

"Sure." she replied, rolling her eyes.

"Which one are you gonna pick, Slate?" Yang asked, looking at Slate, who was facing away from her. "You gonna pick the white pony?" She asked, a second later.

"No." Slate replied, not looking around at Yang.

"You sure?" Yang smiled, taking a step towards Slate. "You sure you don't wanna pick the white pony?"

"Yes." Slate replied, still not looking around.

Raven had told him a story about her initiation at Beacon Academy, and how chess pieces had been used as the 'Relics' for her initiation, and that the pairs that picked the same pieces and colours were placed in teams together.

It was so blindingly obvious that Yang wanted Slate to pick the other white Knight, like she had, so she and Slate could be on a team together, that it made Slate want to scream from Yang's lack of subtlety.

"Last chance, Slate~" Yang purred, just a couple of steps away from being directly behind Slate. "White pony?"

"No." Slate replied, reaching out and taking the black Knight piece. "Eirwen?"

"Hmm?" Eirwen looked around, as she had taken a seat on one of the empty platforms. "You taking that piece?" she slid off the platform and landed on her feet. "Sure."

"Aww." Yang pouted, playfully, for a second, before shrugging. "But hey. This wasn't too hard."

"It's not like this place was very difficult to find." Blake replied, reaching up and scratching an itch behind where her bow was. "Anyway, let's get-"

Blake's words were interrupted by a very loud, very girlish-sounding scream.

"Some girl's in trouble!" Yang whipped around to where the sound was coming from.

"Or some ball-less boy." Slate added. Do you-"

A faint scream of "HEADS UUUUUUUUP!" could be heard getting slowly louder. Blake heard it first, and looked up, with Slate hearing it next, and looking up himself.

Slate prepared to jump out of the way of Ruby Rose, who looked like she was going to fall right on top of him (if Slate were a normal guy, he would have probably made some attempt to catch her, but he was quite sure that Ruby had her Aura, which meant that a little fall wouldn't have hurt her), but Jaune Arc (who was also falling) crashed into her at that second, and the pair of them flew into a tree.

"What." Eirwen spoke, blinking. "The fuck. Just happened?"

"Did your sister just fall from the sky?" Blake asked Yang at that very moment, with Yang only responding with an "I..."

A loud roar could be heard as an Ursa Minor Grimm came out of the trees, seemingly trying to buck something off its back. However, an explosion seem to go off behind it as Nora, the orange-haired girl from breakfast, jumped off it and landed on the ground, screaming "YEEEE-HAAAAW!"

She looked up at the Ursa, which began fading away, as all Grimm did when they died.

"Aww. It's broken." She mumbled, dashing to its fading corpse and observing it as Ren came up behind her, panting.

"Nora! Please..." he spoke. "Don't ever do that again." He looked up again, and saw that his partner was gone from where she should have been. "Nora?"

Nora had now dashed to the white Rook piece, which was right next to where the black Knight that Slate had picked up was earlier, and held it in the air, singing.

"I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castl-"

"NORA!" Ren roared, cutting her singing off. Nora stopped singing, the Relic now on her head, and saluted. "Coming, Ren~!" she called, skipping off and taking the Relic off her head.

"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?" Blake asked.

"You think that was the weirdest thing that just happened?" Slate asked in return. A screech was then heard from everyone's right, the red-haired girl from earlier came onto the scene, running as fast as her legs could carry her as a Deathstalker Grimm uprooted entire trees with ease as it raced after her. It swiped at the girl with its claws, though she jumped over the Grimm and kept on running.

"Jaune!" the girl cried out, running towards the tree that the blonde boy was in.

"Pyrrha!" the boy shouted in reply. "Ruby!" he called, as Ruby jumped out of the tree and landed next to Yang.

"Ruby?" Yang smiled at the sight of her black-haired sister.

"Yang!" Ruby raised her hands, ready to give her a hug.

"NORA!" Nora appeared between the two of them and jumped between Ruby and Yang, catching them both by surprise.

"Slate?" Eirwen looked at her boyfriend as he regarded the Deathstalker with narrowed eyes, while Blake asked the rhetorical question of whether or not 'Pyrrha' had just ran all the way here (from where was anyone's guess) with a Deathstalker on her tail.

"Let's go." Slate broke the unspoken game of people saying each other's names, as he and Eirwen began walking towards the Grimm, while Yang, getting agitated, yelled

"I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! CAN EVERYONE JUST CHILL OUT FOR TWO SECONDS BEFORE SOMETHING CRAZY HAPPENS?!"

"That depends on your definition of crazy!" Eirwen shouted back, as she pulled out her Scroll, opened a program on it and pressed a button that said "ACTIVATE" on it, with Slate following suit.

Before everyone's eyes, the device seemed to open up, and a pair of black wings unfolded, one on each side of Slate and Eirwen's backs. They continued to unfold until they were at their full span (which Ruby, whose silver eyes were widening in delight at the sight of the wings, estimated to be about ten feet, at the very least).

"After you." Slate politely said to his girlfriend, who leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, before a jet system of some kind activated on Eirwen's device, and the white-haired Faunus began to rapidly raise into the air, just in time for Pyrrha to pass where she had been.

Slate turned around, winked at Ruby, whose mouth was open at the sight before her, and followed his girlfriend into the air, drawing his swords from the scabbards hung around his belt.

"Don't have all the fun, Eirwen!" Slate shouted, as Eirwen, who had drawn her sword, flew out of the way of the Deathstalker's large stinger (which it had attempted to stab her with), flew behind it, and swung her sword at its tail. She made her mark, but the sword only went about halfway into the Deathstalker's tail, which Eirwen cursed.

"It's a strong one!" she shouted.

"Yeah, I noticed!" Slate replied, before flying high up into the air (about as high as a passing Nevermore, which Weiss was holding onto), turning around, and diving downwards, both his swords drawn and pointed directly at the Deathstalker's body.

"What's he doing?" Yang, the first one to speak after the reveal of Slate and Eirwen's wings, asked, holding her hand up to keep the sun out of her eyes as she watched Slate come down.

"He's diving." Ren replied. "Just like she's falling." he added, referring to Weiss, who was, indeed, falling.

Glaring down at the Deathstalker (Eirwen was doing her best to keep it in place), Slate approached it, faster and faster, until he finally made contact. At the speed he was going, his swords penetrated the Deathstalker's bone-armour like water, and pinned it in the ground, where it thrashed around for a second before falling limp.

Once it had done so, Slate pulled his swords out of the Deathstalker's body, and hovered in the air while the Deathstalker faded away, and landed back on the ground in front of everyone (including Weiss and Jaune, the former of whom was sitting on top of the latter), with Eirwen joining him.

Slate ignored Ruby's shrieks of glee at the sight of his wings, and looked up at the sky, where the Nevermore that Weiss was holding onto earlier began to circle back towards them.

The rustling of leaves made the ten Huntsmen-in-training tense up, until they saw Azzuro and Lapis coming out of the forest, holding weapons of their own.

Azzurro seemed to be holding a large discus in one hand, and Lapis was holding a double-headed axe. Upon looking closer at it, Slate noticed attachments on the weapon that, he suspected, could give the weapon similar functionality to a crossbow.

These suspicions were confirmed when Lapis held the axe up, and fired an arrow right into the head of a Beowolf that was coming up behind Slate, before he could turn around and cut the beast up. As soon as the arrow hit the Beowolf's head, it exploded, leaving its body to fall to the ground, and fade away.

"Did we miss anything?" Azzurro asked, good-naturedly, as he looked around. "Oh, hey Slate. Hey Eirwen."

"Hey." Slate greeted Azzurro, walking back towards him.

"Cool wings." Lapis observed, as Slate's and Eirwen's wings retracted back into the devices on their backs.

"Cool?" Ruby looked at Lapis, incredulously. "You think those wings are just COOL?" She looked at Slate, who was checking his scroll and walking into the temple, Eirwen following.

"THEY'RE AMAZING!" Ruby shrieked, in a voice that made Slate cover his ears from the pitch of it. Blake also flinched slightly from the shriek. "They're so cool! Can you teach me how to make them? Can you help me with my weapon? Can we-"

"Can you shut up?" Slate asked as he passed Ruby. He grabbed her by the mouth while she was in the middle of speaking, and shoved her aside. She fell on the ground and, to Slate's surprise, shut up as she got up again.

"Guys?" Jaune addressed everyone and pointed up into the air. "That thing's circling back." Slate looked up, and saw that the Nevermore was, indeed, circling back. "What're we gonna do?"

"There's no sense in dilly-dallying." Weiss coldly replied, pointing to the remaining chess pieces as Ruby was helped up by Yang. "Our objective is right in front of us."

"She's right." Ruby replied. "Our mission is to get a Relic and make it back to the cliffs. There's no point in fighting these Grimm."

"Even though more are probably coming." Slate replied. "But yeah. Let's go."

"Run and live." Jaune replied. "That is an idea I can get behind."

"Then let's go." Ruby addressed everyone. "Everyone who hasn't grabbed a Relic, grab one and follow me!" After a second, she then realised that she was among those who hadn't grabbed a chess piece, and speed-walked over to the Temple to grab one.

"Sorry." she whispered to Slate as she passed him, and grabbed the other white Knight piece. Jaune grabbed the other white Rook piece, and Azzurro grabbed the other black Knight piece.

Once everyone was done, they followed Ruby as she ran out of the forest, and between two large stone structures that led towards a larger cliff. The Nevermore settled on top of a stone pillar and screeched at the twelve students. Three loud roars sounded, seemingly in return, sounded behind everyone as three Manticore Grimm showed up, to the surprise of everyone.

They had the bodies and heads of lions, wings of a predatory bird and tails of scorpions. They also had black fur and feathers, with white bone-like spines on their bodies, including a white lion skull and a large, crown-like mane of bone. A pair of bull horns also protruded from their skulls.

"Well that's great." Lapis remarked, as she fitted another arrow into her crossbow/axe hybrid weapon.

"No, it isn't." Azzurro replied, turning around and preparing to throw his discus-weapon (which Slate noticed had serrated edges), which was glowing a light blue, the same colour as his hair. Taking aim, he threw his weapon, which curved in an arc and sliced off one of the wings of the Manticore on the right, as well as the tail.

The Manticore shrieked in pain as the large discus flew in an arc behind the three Manticores, and curved back into Azzurro's hand, where he caught it.

"That was good." Pyrrha walked up to Azzurro, smiling. "Really good."

"Thanks." Azzurro replied, as he prepared for another swing and Lapis walked up to Pyrrha, glaring death into her face.

"Back off, redhead." she growled. "Don't get near my boyfriend." Pyrrha immediately backed off, holding her hands up.

"I'm sorry!" she said, before turning around. Without looking, Lapis jumped into the air, right out of the way of the tail that the middle Manticore (which looked to be the biggest and strongest of the three) attempted to stab her with. The purple-haired axe-wielder jogged up the tail, which the Manticore was struggling to pull out of the ground.

When it looked like it was about to pull its tail out of the ground, Lapis jumped off the tail, readying her axe. She then swung it at the neck of the Manticore that her boyfriend had just de-winged and de-tailed, cutting cleanly through and beheading it.

When she landed on the ground, she swivelled around, loading another arrow into the crossbow, and firing it into the open mouth of the large Manticore whose tail she had ran up. The arrow then exploded, blowing the Manticore's head to pieces as Lapis rolled out of the way.

When Lapis turned around, she saw that the last Manticore had backed up, and was beginning to charge at her. She hurriedly began to load another arrow into her weapon, and rolled to the side, out of the way of the beast charging at her. As it flapped its wings in an attempt to get into the air, Eirwen came flying in on her wings and sliced both of its wings off with her sword.

"Thanks." Lapis smiled, before raising her axe and taking aim at the downed Manticore's head, and firing. The arrow made its mark, and exploded, leaving the Manticore in a similar condition to the first two. That is to say... it was dead.

Very dead.

Deader than dead.

Just straight-up dead.

Okay, I'll stop now.

"Don't mention it." Eirwen replied, looking up to see Ruby running up the cliffside, dragging the Nevermore by its neck with her scythe. She, Azzurro and Lapis watched in silence as Ruby ran right to the top of the cliff, and with a scream that none of them heard, brutally tore its head off and landed at the top of the cliff.

"Damn." Azzurro blinked. "That... was something."

"It sure was." Eirwen replied, landing back on the ground and deactivating her wings. "Wait. Where's Slate?"

 **Line Break**

Slate, as happened, had flown up ahead. His swords out, his eyes narrowed from the wind hitting his face so hard, he had to perform an aileron roll (no, NOT a barrel roll) to get out of the way of the falling headless Nevermore as he flew up the cliff, and nearly took Ruby with him when he reached the top of the cliff.

"Hey." he greeted Ruby as he lowered himself so he was hovering at her level.

"H-hey." Ruby replied, staring at Slate's wings and finding it very hard not to drool. "S-so... how did you make those? Sorry, I'm kinda a weapons-geek."

"It's fine." Slate replied. "I-." he heard a loud screech, and looked to his left, where he could see a large Sphinx Grimm approaching on its large feathered wings.

The Sphinx was about twice the size of the Manticores from earlier, and it had a more slender, feline body. It had a four-crested bone mask on its face, and a white snake for a tail.

"I'll tell you later." Slate remarked to Ruby, powering up his wings and shooting off towards the Sphinx, as Ruby watched him, coming up with potential theories for how his wings were made.

The Sphinx, as it saw Slate approaching, opened its mouth and fired a large fireball at him.

As the fireball left the Sphinx's mouth, Slate quickly deactivated his wings from his Scroll (which he had placed into a holster on his belt), and dropped down, leaving the fireball to fly over him. As it passed, he reactivated his wings and flew up, though he had to turn sharply to avoid the Sphinx as its snake-tail attempted to take a bite out of him.

"Oh, no." Slate remarked, as he hovered out of reach of the Sphinx, which stopped in front of Slate and flapped its wings to keep itself airborne. "You've got to work for this meal, buddy. Come on!"

The snake-tail hissed at Slate, and lunged for him again, but missed. Slate flew up into the air, doing a large loop (dodging another fireball while he was at it), and coming down behind the Sphinx.

The Sphinx was unable to turn around in time to dodge Slate as he readied his swords and swung them at the Sphinx's snake-tail, slicing it into three equal parts, two of which fell down to the ground, and the third of which was still attached to the Sphinx's body, flopping around uselessly.

The Sphinx roared in pain, and shot a stream of fire at Slate, who had to make several sharp turns and several evasive manoeuvres (including three barrel-rolls in a row) to avoid his wings catching fire. Quickly turning around, Slate shot back towards the Sphinx, which had stopped shooting fire at him, and was looking back towards the cliff, where Ruby was firing shots at it from Crescent Rose.

Getting an idea while it was distracted, Slate flew under the Grimm and up about ten metres behind it, shifting the sword in his right hand into a backhand grip.

Powering up his wings to full power, Slate then charged at the Grimm, deactivating his wings just before he landed on its back. When he landed, he began spinning around at rapid speed, his swords cutting in a circle deep into the Sphinx's back, making it roar in pain and turn around.

"Time for you to sleep, you ugly son of a bitch." Slate smirked as he stopped spinning in the air and landing on the Sphinx's back, standing easily. Spinning his swords in his hands, he cut both of the Sphinx's wings clean off, and activated his wings so he could float in the air, above the falling Grimm.

Said falling Grimm roared, and fired a large fireball up at Slate, which only barely missed. It caught the shirt he was wearing and burnt through it, leaving his toned chest exposed. His bare chest was also flashing grey, indicating that his Aura had fallen a bit, indicating that the fireball had impacted Slate's body, if only slightly.

Slate disregarded this as he flew back to the cliff (where everyone else had made it by this point), and landed, deactivating his wings. Though he almost fell off the cliff from Eirwen running into him and hugging him tightly.

"What happened to 'don't have all the fun'?" the white-haired Faunus asked.

"I think I was the one that said that." Slate replied, rubbing Eirwen's hair.

"Doesn't mean YOU can have all the fun yourself, though." Eirwen retorted. The two continued to talk as they walked (with the other ten students following) towards Ozpin and Glynda, who had come out to meet them.

 **Line Break**

"Russel Thrush, Cardin Winchester, Dove Bronzewing, and Sky Lark." Ozpin addressed four boys, who walked up to a stage in a large room at Beacon Academy, as pictures of said boys flashed up on a screen. "The four of you retrieved the black Bishop ieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team Cardinal (CRDL). Lead by... Cardin Winchester!"

There was applause from everyone as Cardin, Russel, Dove and Sky walked off the stage, and Jaune, Ren, Pyrrha and Nora walked up to the stage, where Ozpin addressed them.

"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, and Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white Rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as... Team Juniper (JNPR). Lead by... Jaune Arc!"

Amid the applause, Slate (who was clapping) could see Nora laughing and giving Ren a hug, while Jaune looked confused at the idea of him leading the team. Pyrrha offered Jaune a friendly shoulder-bump, but this knocked Jaune on his ass to the audience's amusement. She offered him a hand along with an audible "I'm sorry!" as the newly-crowned Team JNPR walked off the stage.

"Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee and Yang Xiao Long." Ozpin called, as the four girls walked up to the stage. "The four of you retrieved the white Knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as... Team Ruby (RWBY). Lead by... Ruby Rose!"

Weiss and Ruby both looked shocked as Yang went to hug Ruby, as the audience applauded.

"I can't see that getting confused at all..." Slate whispered to Eirwen, who giggled as Ozpin spoke again.

"And finally... Lapis Qalb, Eirwen Belladonna, Slate Branwen and Azzurro Vague." Ozpin addressed the four final students as they stepped up to the stage. "The four of you retrieved the black Knight pieces."

Weiss and Yang whipped around, in unison, at the mention of Slate and Eirwen's last names. Ruby did as well, though she was a little later than her blonde half-sister and white-haired teammate.

Weiss' eyes were wide at the sight of Slate, his hands in his pockets.

"Weiss..." Ruby tapped Weiss on the shoulder. "You okay?"

"I-I'm alright." Weiss replied, her voice uncharacteristically soft. "It's just... I think I know Slate. It's just... I thought he was dead."

"Well, he's clearly not." Yang replied, also staring at Slate. "But I..." She trailed off as Blake tapped her on the shoulder.

"I've got our dorm-keys. And our dorm-number." She said, offering four small keys to her teammates, who all took one. They enjoyed their walk up to their dormitory in silence, their respective brains running frantically as Ozpin finished his speech.

"From this day forward, the four of you shall work together as... Team Seal (SEAL)." Ozpin declared to Slate, Eirwen, Azzurro and Lapis. "Led by... Slate Branwen."

There was applause from everyone as the newly-crowned Team SEAL walked off the stage, were presented with their dorm-keys and dorm-number by Professor Peach (the woman with peach-coloured hair from earlier), and they walked off to the dorm-building. When they walked outside (the broken Remnant moon was high in the sky) at this point, a red-eyed bird flew across the sky, cawing as it watched Slate with his girlfriend and teammates.

The bird flew off to an isolated spot, where it dived down behind a tree. However, Raven Branwen emerged from that tree, watching Slate from afar as she brushed a bit of her hair out of her eyes, and resolving to keep an eye on his teammates from now on.

After all, it wouldn't do to have her son and his girlfriend bogged down by a pair of weaklings, now would it?

 **Line Break**

An hour or so later, Professor Ozpin sat in his office and at his desk, sipping his evening coffee and considering turning in for the night, when his Scroll (which was in his pocket) began buzzing, indicating that he was receiving a call.

Reaching into his pocket, Ozpin pulled his Scroll out and placed it on the table, where it revealed the identity of the caller: General James Ironwood.

Placing his coffee on his desk, Ozpin pressed the button to answer the call.

"Good evening, James." he greeted his long-time friend, calmly. "How are things up in Atlas?"

"Cut the pleasantries, Oz." Ironwood's voice emerged from the Scroll, his tone of voice immediately making Ozpin tense up, if involuntarily. "I want to know if a boy named Slate has enrolled at Beacon Academy."

 **And that's the third chapter of Son of the General! Slate is now the leader of Team SEAL, and we now know another trick that he and Eirwen have up their sleeves: wings that they can use to fucking FLY! For reference, I'm basing their wings off the wings that Falcon has in the MCU. You'll know what I'm on about if you've ever seen Winter Soldier, Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Civil War or Infinity War.**

 **As for Azzurro's and Lapis' weapons, they are, respectively, a large discus with 64 serrated edges (which, strictly speaking, makes it a Hexacontatetragon. A better name for it would be Captain America's shield if Uncle Sam hadn't puked all over it), and a double-headed war-axe that also functions as a crossbow, that fires Dust-tipped arrows.**

 **As for the harem, I'm still not 100% sure whether Slate should have one or not. I'm leaning towards yes, so just in case I decide to give Slate one, I've set up a poll for you to decide what harem members he should have. Make sure to vote on it, please.**

 **Anyway, now that that's done, what did you think of this chapter? Please, review and let me know, because I really do love hearing feedback. If you fancy letting me know about some possible ideas you might have for later in the story, just let me know in a review or PM (or talk to me on Discord (my name for it is on my profile)), as I really enjoy talking to readers!**

 **Next Time: The Call, First Day at School**

 **Preview of Next Chapter:**

" _I was being sarcastic." Lapis blinked at Eirwen. "I didn't think you'd actually do it."_

 **Seeya!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Anything you recognise isn't mine.**

"You sound tense, James." Ozpin replied, taking another sip of coffee to calm himself down. "Are you alright? Those wives up in Atlas stressing you out?"

"I didn't call to talk to you about the marriage problems I might or might not be having, Ozpin!" Ironwood shouted. Ozpin heard a bang from Ironwood's side of the call, indicating that he might have slammed a hand down on his desk. "I called to ask you if a boy named Slate has enrolled at your school!"

"Yes, I know." Ozpin replied, taking another calm sip. "Yes, he has."

"Alright, that settles it." Ironwood replied, as Ozpin opened his mouth to continue talking. "I'm coming over to Beacon with my students when the Vytal Festival begins. Expect to see me soon."

"Gladly." Ozpin replied, unfazed by this announcement. Given the recent events, he would have been more surprised to see Ironwood NOT show up with his students when the Festival rolled around than if he had not. "Though I'm curious as to why you're so zealous about asking me. One would think that you'd be more interested in Miss Schnee's enrolment than Mr. Branwen's."

"Of course I'm interested in young Weiss' enrolment at your school, Oz!" Ironwood replied, exasperatedly. "She's the youngest daughter of a good friend of-" he then realised what the Beacon headmaster had just said. "Wait. What did you just say?"

"One would think that you'd be more interested in Miss Schnee's enrolment than Mr. Branwen's." Ozpin repeated, calmly.

"Branwen?" The holographic Ironwood widened his eyes. "Are you sure?!"

"Very." Ozpin replied. "It's in his transcripts. Wait a moment." Ozpin then proceeded to send a copy of Slate's transcript files to Ironwood, and the Beacon headmaster could almost hear the cogs in the Atlas headmaster's head turning as he looked them over.

"That definitely looks like my son." Ironwood muttered. "he matches the description of the young man Winter ran into a couple of days ago too." Ozpin could hear Ironwood collapsing into a chair. "This doesn't make any sense. Why would Qrow want to adopt a child?"

"He didn't." Ozpin replied. "I already called him last night after seeing Mr. Branwen's transcripts. In fact, I don't think he knows that you even have a child in the first place."

"Wait, then-" Ironwood paused for a second. "Then RAVEN adopted Slate? But how?"

"I don't know." Ozpin replied. "I'm considering meeting with Slate to ask him that himself. I'm sure with the right persuasion he might tell us what we need to know." he gave a smile to Ironwood. "Is that all you wanted to talk to me about tonight, James?"

"Y-yes." Ironwood replied. "I'll talk to you soon, Ozpin." he then hung up, leaving Ozpin in the silence of his own office. He then looked up, and saw Glynda standing in the entrance to his office, her eyes wide and standing still.

"Are you alright, Glynda?" Ozpin asked of his Deputy Headmistress, taking another sip of his coffee.

"Y-yes, I'm alright." Glynda replied, still looking shaken. Ozpin regarded the combat Professor quietly with his chocolate-brown eyes, silently understanding what was going through her head.

He then proceeded to down the rest of his coffee in one go.

 **Line Break**

It was the morning after the initiation of all the first-years, and Lapis Qalb was the first to wake up. Sitting up and quietly yawning as she looked around their moderately dark bedroom (as it was early morning, the sun hadn't fully risen yet), the purple-haired axe-wielder yawned a second time as her blue eyes looked upon a rather amusing sight.

It seemed that Eirwen wasn't content in sleeping in the bed that she'd chosen (which, if one were to walk into the bedroom and look at the four beds side by side, was the one on the far left, next to Slate's, which was to the right of hers), and had crawled into Slate's bed in order to be close to him. She and Slate were both fast asleep, though Eirwen's arm was wrapped around her boyfriend.

Lapis (whose bed was on Slate's other side) had to let out a small giggle at that, and reached to the bedside table that she and Azzurro (who was sleeping with a comic of some description lying on the floor close to his right hand, which was hanging over the bed) shared.

She grabbed her Scroll off the wireless charging pad that she and Azzurro shared, powered it on and switched on the Scroll's camera, and began taking pictures of Eirwen and Slate, thinking that these would be damn good pictures to send back to her family on the outskirts of Vale.

After taking two or three pictures from her position on the bed, Lapis decided to stand up and get a better angle for her picture-taking. Landing on the floor as quietly as she possibly could, she raised her Scroll above Slate and Eirwen as they slept together and took a couple more pictures, making sure to get as much of their bodies as possible.

The beams of sunlight shining through the windows of Team SEAL's dormitory lit up the room, something that seemed to rouse Eirwen Belladonna from sleep. Her eyes opened, and seemed to immediately focus on Lapis, standing at the foot of Slate's bed, Scroll in hand.

"The hell are you doing, Lapis?" Eirwen asked, sounding slightly groggy.

"Just saving the sight of something funny." Lapis replied, turning off her Scroll. "If you want to be close to your boyfriend while you sleep, shove your beds together, why don't you?"

The white-haired Faunus blinked a couple of times, before she got up out of Slate's bed. Lapis watched, her eyebrows raised, as Eirwen walked over to her bed, then began pushing it towards Slate's bed (which he still slept soundly on). Once she was done, the two beds might as well have been a single double-bed.

"I was being sarcastic." Lapis blinked at Eirwen. "I didn't think that you'd actually do it."

"Don't care." Eirwen replied, as she climbed back into bed, next to her boyfriend, and reached for her Scroll. "It was a good idea."

While not seeming to care that her boyfriend's face was just a couple of inches from where her bare ass was perched (as she wore no underwear under her white nightie), she opened up a book on the Scroll's screen, and began reading it.

Lapis shrugged, and after pulling on a dressing gown, walked out of the room to find some breakfast.

After about forty-five minutes, she walked back into the room, while finishing off the bagel that she had been eating, to see Slate and Azzurro awake. Slate had his arm around Eirwen while she continued reading, while Azzurro looked like he had only woken up a matter of seconds before Lapis had walked in. He was yawning and groping around for his glasses.

"Hey." Lapis greeted her new teammates while shoving the rest of her bagel into her mouth, chewing for a couple of seconds then swallowing. "There's food downstairs in the cafeteria if anyone's-"

Lapis' words were drowned out by the sound of an extremely shrill whistle going off from the room next door (which she vaguely remembered as Team RWBY's room). She winced at the sound of such a loud, sudden noise, as did Slate and Eirwen (though not as harshly as she did).

However, Azzurro jumped like he had just been hit with an electric shock, and fell off his bed onto the ground, his Aura flashing blue when he hit said ground.

"Wh-what?" he looked around from his position on the ground. "What was that? What time is it?"

"Around 8am." Eirwen, who'd recovered from the sound of the whistle going off. "Classes start in an hour, by the way."

"G-got it." Azzurro yawned, and trudged over to the wardrobe that he'd claimed as his the night before. He then opened it, grabbed his school uniform and began pulling it on. Lapis did the same with the wardrobe next to Azzurro's, and walked into the bathroom in order to get changed.

Ignoring the sound of a whistle going off for the second time in Team RWBY's dorm, Slate and Eirwen began to do the same thing. Despite starting before Lapis and Azzurro, they managed to finish getting dressed before either of them finished themselves.

Slate and Azzurro's uniform consisted of black suits lined with gold, accompanied by a blue vest and a white shirt with a red tie, while Eirwen and Lapis' uniform consisted of a red plaid skirt, black socks (Eirwen wore regular socks that only went partway up her legs, while Lapis opted to wear thigh-high socks), and a brown jacket with a tan vest, along with a white shirt with a red ribbon tied at the collar.

"You're looking good, Eirwen." Slate remarked, as he and Eirwen regarded each other's appearances. "By the way." he addressed his team at large. "Is anyone gonna go ask Team RWBY to keep it down in their dorm?"

"I will." Lapis replied, giving her body a little shake as she walked out of the bedroom. Before turning to walk towards Team RWBY's dorm, she added "I bet it's that little red child that's blowing that whistle as much as I blow something else." She looked over at Azzurro and winked at him, before walking out of sight.

"TMI, Lapis." Azzurro muttered, blushing and looking away from Slate and Eirwen, who both chuckled.

"It's fine, Azzurro." Eirwen remarked. "It's nothing that Slate and I haven't done before." She looked at Slate and giggled, while he just gave a small smirk before replying.

"What's our first class?"

"Grimm Studies." Lapis replied, walking back into their dorm. "With Professor Port. Ruby's sorry, by the way."

"'Kay." Slate replied, in an even tone. He inwardly sighed, remembering what Raven had told him about Port. That being that, despite his talent as a fighter, Peter Port was a teacher who could probably put the Creatures of Grimm to sleep with one of his lectures, he was so boring. Not to mention that he was a braggart who kept a golden bust of himself on his desk.

Needless to say, Slate Branwen was not looking forward to being taught by that man.

 **Line Break**

As it turned out, the Grimm Studies class with Port was only slightly better than what Slate was expecting it to be (which in all honesty, wasn't too high of a bar to clear). Seeing Weiss fight a Boarbatusk Grimm, while dangerous as fuck, was fun to see. Even if Weiss' distraction from Ruby, Blake and Yang cheering her on almost got her killed.

After Slate took down a note of what readings Port had assigned him (and the rest of the class) to cover, he left the room, stretching, with Eirwen at his side and Azzurro and Lapis following. As the black-haired Branwen turned to his right to walk towards the cafeteria for lunch, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw Yang standing in front of him.

"Hello Yang." Slate greeted the blondie. "What's up?"

"I wanted to talk to you about something." Yang replied. "I called my Dad last night to ask about whether I was the only child that came from him and Raven, and he said that I was. So-" Slate cut her off before she could even ask her question.

"Well you would be." he replied. "I was adopted."

"Oh, you were?" Yang asked, feeling a slight tinge of anger flow through her at the idea of her mother leaving her and adopting a child, as opposed to not staying and raising her own flesh and blood, but forcing the anger down, as she didn't want to cause a scene in the hallway. "Oh." she then smiled at Slate, winking at him. "That means you're fair game for me~"

"No, he's not." Eirwen spoke up, stepping in between Slate and Yang. Her golden eyes glaring into Yang's lilac ones, Slate saw claws protruding from his girlfriend's fingertips, something that only happened when she was stressed. Or very angry.

"Back off, Yang." Eirwen growled, her voice low. "I mean it."

Feeling a small chill run down her back at Eirwen, who she was probably around half a foot taller than, glaring at her so hard, Yang took a step back, her hands in the air.

"Alright. Sorry." she apologized. "Was only trying to have fun."

"That's quite alright." Eirwen replied, as her claws retracted out of sight. "I just get defensive, when I see someone trying to steal my man."

"I understand." Yang replied, shrugging. "I'd probably feel the same." She then looked around to see Ruby coming towards them, looking rather dejected.

"What's up, sis?" Yang asked of her little sister. "Was it Weiss?"

"Yeah." Ruby replied. "I was just trying to help. I don't know why Weiss is so mad."

"Maybe because she thinks that she's the best at everything." Slate replied. "If she hasn't changed at all from five years ago, then that might be the case."

"Hm. What he said." Yang remarked, as Slate had just said what she was thinking herself. Though without the 'if she hasn't changed at all from five years ago' bit.

"Probably." Ruby sighed, before perking up and dashing over to Slate. "So... Slate?"

"Yeah?"

"You said that you were gonna show me how your- your wings work." Ruby stated. "When're you going to do that?"

"Not now, Little Red." Slate replied. "I should go through the readings Port just set a few minutes ago. And I'm hungry."

Ruby nodded in understanding as Slate and Eirwen left, watching Yang watch Eirwen reach up and stroke her boyfriend's hair.

 **Line Break**

It was the end of Slate Branwen's first day at Beacon Academy, and in the aftermath of a Practical Studies class with Professor Peach (a class that seemed to teach survival skills. How to survive in the wild while on a mission as a Huntsman/Huntress if you couldn't find somewhere like a hotel to sleep at, things like that. It was a class that Slate, someone who'd lived in the wild for five years, could see himself acing), Slate, who was dressed in a plain black t-shirt and a faded-black pair of loose pants, was sat on his bed, reading through the assigned passages that Port had assigned earlier that day, while taking the occasional note.

Eirwen, Azzurro and Lapis were all sat on Azzurro's bed, watching a movie on Lapis' Scroll, with that movie being titled something like 'Adventures of the Grimm Reaper: Volume 3', and occasionally making conversation with each other. After letting out a yawn, Azzurro addressed Slate as he turned a page in his book.

"Hey, Slate?"

"Hmm?" Slate, didn't look up from the book.

"You know your wings?"

"I know of them." Slate replied, writing down a note before returning to the reading. "They're not alive, so I can't know them personally." he added, in a deadpan tone. Azzurro chuckled for a second, before replying.

"I know Eirwen's told me that you don't want to talk about how you made your wings until you trust me and Lapis, and I understand that…"

Slate's green eyes flicked towards Azzurro for a second, before returning to his book.

"But why did you make your wings?" Slate's blue-haired teammate asked of his leader. "If you don't mind me asking."

"It's... fine." Slate replied, after a second's pause. "I came up with the idea for my wings because I always felt limited by just fighting on the ground. I mean I can do it, yes, but I always liked the idea of flying while fighting."

That makes sense." Azzurro replied, watching the Grimm Reaper on screen slash through five Beowolves at once with her famous twin sickles, before jumping into the air and firing a bullet of Dust at an Ursa Minor. The bullet hit the Grimm in the head and killed it instantly before she landed on the ground. "Is that why Eirwen has a pair of wings as well?"

"No." Slate replied. "She just liked them so much that I decided to make a pair for her as well. Mom was all for it."

Eirwen silently smiled from her boyfriend's remark as she watched the movie with her two teammates. The whole of what Slate had said about why he'd made his wings did have some truth to it, but there were some parts to his story that she knew were half-truths, at the very most.

In reality, the reason Slate had started putting together the ideas for a pair of wings that he could fly on was because he'd seen Raven flying in her bird-form one day, and wanted to experience the idea of flight as well. Raven was very for the idea of Slate building such a device, that was true, and she had helped him gather the materials for such a device.

The part about Eirwen liking Slate's wings so much that he had built a set for her was complete truth. That, Eirwen knew from experience.

Team SEAL sat in silence for the next few minutes. Slate read his book and took notes, and Eirwen, Azzurro and Lapis watched their movie. After Slate finished taking notes on the description of the Nevermore Grimm that the book gave, he shut the book with a snap and tossed it onto his and Eirwen's shared bed, before standing up.

"Where're you going?" Eirwen asked of her boyfriend.

"Out." Slate replied. "Thought I'd walk around and get a feel for the place I'll be spending the next four years of my existence at."

"Cool." Eirwen smiled, before making to get up. "Want me to come too?"

In reply, Slate reached down to his bed, grabbed the book that he'd been reading earlier, and lightly tossed it to Eirwen. It hit her in the chest.

"Get those readings out of the way." Slate replied, before stretching. "Would give you a change of pace as opposed to watching crappy fiction."

The black-haired Branwen smirked and walked out of the dorm, shutting the door behind him before Lapis could jump up and protest Slate calling her favourite movie 'crappy fiction', and walked away from his dorm, making his way out of the dorm building and into the courtyard, which was lit up by the evening sun.

Slate then proceeded to just spend the next quarter of an hour or so walking around the cliffside courtyard, occasionally looking up at the sky. One of his favourite pastimes in the Branwen Tribe, when he wasn't busy fighting Grimm, refining his wings, or doing... certain things with Eirwen, was just watching the sky from Raven's tent.

It offered him a brief period of respite in the kill-or-be-killed life that five years as the adopted son of Raven Branwen had conditioned him to expect, and reminded him of the first part of his life, in Atlas. A far more cushy life than his time in the Branwen Tribe, to be sure. Save for the missions that he'd gone on with the Young Atlesians' Military Program, of course.

Getting up from the bench that Slate had plopped himself down on, he stretched, wondering for a moment if there was a gymnasium of any kind, as he felt like working out for a bit. After noticing another student walking towards the dorm building, he decided to approach her. She evidently heard him coming, as she turned around to look at him while he approached.

The student in question was a teenage girl with fair skin, short dark-brown hair and dark-brown eyes. She had wavy locks on one side of her face, dyed with a gradient that starts as a dark brown and transitioned to caramel. She wore a long, cocoa-coloured shirt with a dark brown waist cincher, along with long, dark brown trousers with ribbons on the left side and a brown belt with bullet cartridges

Above it, she wore another cocoa-coloured belt of cartridges with a gold crosshairs buckle. What appeared to be a drape of black skirt hung on her right side. She wore a pair of dark brown, high-heeled leather boots with buckles. She also appeared to don a number of accessories, such as a bracelet with black roses as decoration, which were accompanied by black gloves and necklaces. She wore a dark brown beret and a pair of black, wire-rimmed aviator sunglasses.

Under her sunglasses, one of her eyebrows raised as she saw Slate approaching her.

"Can I help you?" she asked, looking Slate up and down.

"Yes." Slate replied. "Do you know if there's a gym around here? Since I feel like having a workout tonight."

"Oh, yeah. There's a gym here, alright." the girl replied. "I'll take you there, if you want."

"Thank you." Slate replied. As the girl began walking away from the dorm building she was beginning to enter, Slate followed. After a couple of seconds of silence, the girl spoke up.

"My name's Coco, by the way. Coco Adel, second-year."

"I'm Slate." Slate replied. "First-year."

"I see." Coco replied, turning around and walking backwards while looking at Slate again. "You don't much look like a first-year to me. More like a second-year. Maybe third."

"Is that a problem?" Slate asked, his eyes narrowing. Coco held up her hands and turned around, beginning to walk forwards again.

"Oh, no." she replied. "Nothing wrong with looking a little big for your age. I mean one of my teammates is a huge son of a bitch. Huge to the point that he can barely fit into his bed without sleeping diagonally." Coco snorted, through her nose. "It's quite funny, really." Brushing some hair out of her face, Coco continued talking. "I could hardly believe my eyes when I ended up partnering with Yatsuhachi during last year's initiation."

"You talk a lot." Slate calmly observed in reply as he and Coco continued walking. Coco turned around and looked at Slate again while idly stepping to the side of two students that were walking towards them along the same path.

"Is that a problem?" she asked, parroting Slate's earlier question at him. "You don't seem to talk all that much."

Slate remained silent in reply, something that didn't go unnoticed by Coco, who laughed.

"Clever." she acknowledged, as they walked through a pair of large double-doors into a modern-looking building. "Well, here's the gym. Just through those doors there."

"Thank you." Slate replied, inclining his head at Coco as she walked past.

"You're very welcome." Coco replied. Once she passed Slate, she reached out and gave a light slap to his behind, a gesture that made Slate whirl around and stare at Coco, who laughed.

"Sorry, sorry!" she apologized, through giggles. "I just can't help myself. Sorry."

"It's fine." Slate replied, his face going slightly red. Coco let out another giggle, and walked out of the double-doors she and Slate just came through, waving to him as she walked out of sight.

After recovering from what Coco had done, Slate walked through the doors into Beacon Academy's gym. It was a large, spacious area, with just about every piece of equipment that you could think would be in a gym: exercise bikes, dumbbells/barbells, punchbags, you name it, it was most likely there.

There was also a walled room within the large room Slate was standing in, alone, but he didn't know what was in there, and honestly didn't care.

'Probably a storage room of some kind.' he thought as he walked over to one of the punchbags, and as the name suggested, started punching it, working out the pent-up energy that came from sitting in classrooms all day long, taking notes and answering the occasional question that was asked of him.

Growling, Slate continued to throw punches, not even looking around when the door to the other room opened and someone walked out, until one punch, which he threw with all his strength, actually ended up puncturing the bag itself. Sand leaked from the hole as Slate massaged his knuckle, and briefly considered taking his shirt off, as he didn't want it getting super-wet with sweat.

After deciding against it, he turned around to go and get a drink of water, and saw Yang standing in the doorway to the other room, wearing nothing but an orange tank-top that was tucked into a pair of dark-coloured shorts. Under her tank-top, Slate could see parts of a black sports-bra, and though Eirwen was his girlfriend, he couldn't help but enjoy the look of Yang.

The fact that her golden hair was tied up into a ponytail didn't hurt things either.

"Hey." Yang greeted Slate, adjusting her ponytail. "Fancy seeing you here, Slate."

"Hello, Yang." Slate replied. "You working out?"

"In a sense." Yang replied, stretching. "Was just practising against a combat android." she jerked her head into the other room. "And I guess you were just punching that bag."

"Yeah." Slate replied. "Kinda obvious, if you think about it."

"True enough." Yang remarked, looking at Slate and admiring his muscular physique. "Since you're here, you wanna come in here?" She jerked her head back into the room she had (presumably) just come out of. "We're allowed to use this room for sparring as well as against combat androids."

"...Okay." Slate replied, after a moment. "Just give me a moment." he walked over to the water fountain that was close to where Yang was standing, and poured himself a drink.

"This some kind of way of trying to get with me without Eirwen here to stop you?" Slate asked, looking over at Yang as he started drinking from the large plastic cup that he'd poured nearly up to full capacity.

"No, not really." Yang replied, smiling at Slate. "Whatever gave you that idea?" she raised an eyebrow as she watched Slate down the entire cup in one go, before tossing it into a container where a robot of some kind began washing the cup until it looked like it had never been used.

"The fact that you've been flirting with me since day one." Slate answered, looking deadpan at Yang. "Anyway. Let's get this over with."

"Yeah." Yang replied, walking into the other room, which consisted mainly of a large arena-type area, and a small booth at the end with some device that, Slate presumed, controlled the combat androids that Yang mentioned earlier. "Also?" Slate turned around to look at the blonde, who had just closed the door. "I want to make a bet."

"What kind of bet?" Slate replied, having a good idea as to what Yang was going to say.

"If I win..." Yang answered, before pausing for effect. "I want you to tell me about your relationship with my mother." She gave Slate, who was rolling his eyes, a hard look. "That a problem?"

"No. It's fine." Slate replied. "However. If I win, I want you to stop flirting with me around Eirwen. I don't want her getting in trouble for tearing your eyes out. She actually did that to someone who tried to pull me away from her." he added, as Yang gave a small snort of disbelief that Slate's girlfriend would tear her eyes out. Though those claws looked like they could do a lot of damage if her Aura was down…

"Sounds fair to me." she replied. "Shall we get started, then?"

"Yes." Slate replied, walking towards her with his hand out. "Good luck."

"Likewise." Yang replied, accepting Slate's handshake. However, she only realised what Slate was really doing when it was too late to stop him.

As soon as Yang clasped his hand in hers, Slate quickly pulled the blondie towards him, raising his knee to strike her in the gut. When Yang gave an "oof!" of surprise, Slate quickly grabbed her by the waist, lifted her bodily above his head, and harshly threw her down onto the ground, jumping away before Yang had a chance to counterattack.

Her Aura flashing yellow, Yang laughed as she got to her feet, looking at Slate who got into a combat stance, giving her a hard look in return.

"I should've seen that coming." she admitted to herself, before getting into a combat stance of her own. "So, that's how you wanna play, huh?" she called over to Slate. "Alright then."

Yang then proceeded to charge at Slate, beginning the fight for real.

 **And that's the fourth chapter of Son of the General! Ironwood now knows that his son is at Beacon Academy, said son's first day at said academy is now over, and he and Yang are squaring up for a fight because that's how things generally get solved in RWBY. Unless it's Ruby channelling her inner trashy anime *cough* Naruto *cough* and trying to talk her way out of things. Seriously girl, you were STARING DOWN THE BARREL OF THE CANNON OF A GIANT FUCKING GEN:LOCK PROMOTION IN VOLUME 6, FUCKING MOVE OUT OF THE WAY OR SOMETHING!**

 ***ahem***

 **Regarding the harem-poll, I won't spoil who's leading and who isn't here, but all I'm going to say is that the top two members are practically set in stone to be in Slate's future harem at this point, and as for the third harem member... well, it's coming down to the wire.**

 **I'll be leaving the poll up until the next chapter comes out, in which case I'll announce the winners.**

 **Anyway, now that that's done, what did you think of this chapter? Please, review and let me know, because I really do love hearing feedback. If you fancy letting me know about some possible ideas you might have for later in the story, just let me know in a review or PM (or talk to me on Discord (my name for it is on my profile)), as I really enjoy talking to readers!**

 **Next Time: Slate vs. Yang**

 **Preview of Next Chapter:**

" _Do you like those wings as much as you like cookies?" Blake asked Ruby, from her own bed (which was under Yang's). "Since you were scarfing them down like no tomorrow at dinner."_

 **Seeya!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Anything you recognise isn't mine.**

While Slate and Yang ran at each other and began their spar in the gym at Beacon Academy, Ruby and Blake were sat in their team's dorm room. Due to some problems with packing and arranging their luggage (mainly Weiss' and Blake's), Team RWBY had been forced to re-arrange, and came to the conclusion that bunk-beds had to be put together. Though they held together quite well, the 'bunk-beds', in all honestly, looked incredibly dangerous. Ruby's bed hung from ropes on the ceiling above Weiss' bed and with a blanket (used as a makeshift tent) over it, while Blake's bed was held above Yang's through the use of several spare books.

Blake was quietly reading a book titled 'Howling at the Moon', and was almost as still as a statue, with the only things moving being her eyes, and occasionally her hands as she turned the pages. Ruby, on the other hand, was feverishly drawing a piece of paper and making notes around what she was drawing on several more sheets, with a few more pieces tacked onto the wall beside her suspended bed.

"Wingspan of ten feet..." Ruby muttered, making a note as she erased some of her drawing and re-drew the wings to the scale of a (very poor) drawing of Slate in the middle of the paper she had damn near destroyed with how enthusiastically she was sketching and scrawling on it. "Can retract into a small backpack, so the wings must be made of something light... carbon-fibre, maybe? Gotta be powered by Dust, too."

"Do you like those wings as much as you like cookies?" Blake asked of Ruby as her yellow eyes flicked over and watched her team leader (who was two years her junior). "Since you were scarfing them down like no tomorrow at dinner."

"Nope." Ruby replied, not really listening to what Blake was asking of her. "Backpack must be pretty light too, if Slate can turn around as fast as he can in mid-air..."

"You more interested in those wings than the fact that your sister has a long-lost brother of some kind?" Blake asked, moving herself around so she could watch Ruby even closer.

"Half-sister." Ruby replied, just as seemingly disinterested in what Blake was asking her, before she finished her drawing and looked back at Blake. "Alright, what were you asking?"

Blake rolled her eyes and returned to her position on her bed, while Ruby blinked, remembering a question that was coming to her mind regarding Slate's girlfriend and her potential relation to Blake.

"Blake...?" Ruby spoke up, once the question fully formed in her mind. "You know Eirwen?"

"I... know of her." Blake replied, sounding like she was about to say something else but caught herself before it happened. However, this little slip went unnoticed by Ruby.

"Are you related to her?" Ruby asked, directly. "I mean, you have the same last name and all."

"Maybe." Blake replied. "But you and Yang are related, while not having the same last name."

Ruby opened her mouth to respond, but after taking in what Blake said, realised that she was absolutely right.

"Y-yeah, good point." she muttered, before opening her mouth to ask another question. However, Blake jumped down from her perch on the bed and landed on her feet.

"I'm going to the library." she informed her leader, before walking out of the door and shutting the door behind her, leaving her blinking leader in Team RWBY's dorm room alone. As Blake walked out of the first-years dorm building, one would actually hear the cogs turning in her head from how hard she was thinking about the idea of her half-sister Eirwen (though prior to their meeting a couple of years ago, Blake knew her half-sister as Andhera, not Eirwen) showing up at the same Huntsmen Academy as she herself chose to attend.

 **Line Break**

It was three or so minutes since Yang and Slate had begun their spar in Beacon Academy's gym. Both were confident that they were going to win, as they seemed evenly matched. Yang was the more aggressive out of herself and Slate, throwing more attacks in the hopes that she would overpower her fellow Huntsman-in-training.

On the other hand, Slate preferred to hang back and wait for Yang to make an error in order to counterattack. Another difference between the two was that Slate preferred to fight by grappling with his opponent as opposed to throwing punches and kicks, like Yang.

Yang threw a punch towards Slate, which he deflected with one hand, before punching Yang in the face with the other hand to daze her for the second he needed to attempt a sweep-kick on her. However, Yang jumped over Slate's attack and caught him in the face with a downward punch, which sent Slate down to the ground. However, he was back on his feet in the instant it took Yang to approach him and attempt to finish the fight by kicking him in the head.

"Not gonna work." he remarked simply. "And neither will that." he added, reaching out and grabbing Yang's leg as she tried to kick him again, and pulling her towards him so he could punch her in the head, sending her to his right, her Aura flashing.

Rather than let her fall to the ground, Slate kept his hold on Yang, and lifted her up into the air. He tried to throw her to his left, but Yang managed to wriggle free and land on the ground, giving Slate a punch in the gut for good measure before rolling out of harm's way.

"That all you've got, Slate?" she asked, grinning as Slate approached her. "Didn't think so." she added as Slate made to throw a punch at her. Reading this tell, she began to throw a punch, but Slate ducked, and managed to get the sweep-kick he needed earlier. As Yang landed on her (admittedly very nice) ass with an "oof!", Slate leant down, picking Yang up by her tank-top, and, while inadvertently getting a view of the black sports-bra underneath said tank-top, punched her in the stomach to send her flying backwards.

"Fuck!" Yang cursed as she landed on the ground, feeling her Aura running low. Even with her Aura still up, she felt like she was about to pass out from how hard she'd been fighting, while Slate's heavy breathing was the only tell that he wasn't in 100% perfect fighting shape. "Can't... give up... now!" she got back up on her feet, her eyes red, and dashed toward Slate, who had to resist the urge to roll his eyes.

Yang threw another punch at her opponent, who dodged to the side and attempted to kick her head, but missed as Yang ducked under the kick, and counterattacked by throwing a punch at Slate, who blocked the punch with his arm. Something that shocked Slate when he blocked Yang's punch was that he felt his Aura going down a lot more than when Yang punched or kicked him normally.

Slate ran towards Yang and tried to tackle her, but she punched him in the gut again, stunning him, before grabbing him in return and bodily throwing him across the arena. Slate landed on his feet, close to one of the walls, slightly shocked at the strength Yang had suddenly gained out of absolutely nowhere.

Yang was hot on his trail, throwing punches harder and faster than she'd done during the whole five minutes that they'd fought, and Slate, who was backed into a corner, could do nothing but just block as he felt his Aura dropping with every time Yang hit him. Eventually, he managed to duck out of the way of Yang's punches, and saw the wall cracking as Yang punched where his face would have been.

Yang turned around and did a running jump-kick at Slate, who tried to dodge out of the way, but with only half-success, as Yang's kick hit him in the arm, with that kick being enough to completely down his Aura and leave him vulnerable, with pain shooting up his arm as well. Hissing, he tried to punch Yang with his weaker left arm, but Yang simply leaned back, dodging the punch, and planted her foot deep in Slate's stomach, sending him flying back across the gym to land on the ground, defeated.

"Ahh... shit." Slate groaned, pushing himself up into a sitting position and watching Yang walk over to the door of the gym. She then stood in front of it, blocking the ability for him to exit the room without going through her.

"Alright, Slate." Yang's eyes narrowed as Slate got to his feet. "You know the deal. I won the fight. Tell me about your relationship with my mother."

"Okay, okay." Slate swung his arm a couple of times to stop it from hurting. "What do you want to know?"

"How you met." Yang replied. "How did you meet her?"

Slate sighed, and sat back down.

 _FLASHBACK:_

 _Five years ago, a certain Slate Ironwood, who was a lot skinnier than the average 12-year-old boy (even for one with Aura) ran past a burning building in a small village in Anima. The son of the top Atlas general shrieked in surprise as he tripped over his own feet and fell to the cobbled ground. His Aura flashed grey for a second as he rolled for a second and lay on the ground. Panting for a second and hearing his stomach grumble (as he had not eaten in two and a half days), Slate's ears perked up when he heard the growl of a Grimm getting slowly louder as something approached him._

 _Sitting up, Slate's eyes widened in horror as a Beowolf approached him, its fangs bared and its red eyes glowing. He looked to his left and right, and after seeing a standard-looking sword, he picked it up and rolled out of the way when the Beowolf tried to pounce on him and tear his body to shreds. The medium-sized Grimm looked at Slate and roared at him. Slate glared back, and growled in return._

" _Fuck off, skull face." Slate snarled, as the Grimm rushed towards him and jumped, trying to pounce on him. However, Slate easily dodged the pounce (with it being more muscle memory than anything and his training in the YAMP) and brought his sword downward on the Beowolf's neck, decapitating and killing it._

 _Slate lowered his weapon and panted for a moment, but was unaware of another Beowolf arriving and clawing at him, sending him flying through the air (sword leaving his hand) and landing roughly on the ground, at the cost of the rest of his Aura._

 _Groaning in pain (as he felt like a bruise was forming on his lower chest), Slate picked himself up and saw another Beowolf, this one a little bit bigger than the first one he'd killed, approaching, licking its lips at the idea of a fresh new meal._

 _Slate picked up the sword that he'd dropped and jumped back as the Beowolf took a swipe at him with its clawed paw, and took a swing back, but missed. Pulling his hand back to avoid having it taken off by another swipe, Slate ducked under the Beowolf leaning forward and trying to bite his head off, and rolled under and around it so he was behind it. He then brought his sword down on the Beowolf's arm, which was about as thick as the first Beowolf's neck, severing it from the Grimm's body._

 _The Beowolf screamed in agony and turned around, roaring at Slate and trying to swipe at him with its other paw, but missing as its weight was unbalanced. Slate took full advantage of the situation and severed the Beowolf's other arm, before impaling it through the back._

 _As the Beowolf faded away (which Grimm almost always did instantly upon their death), Slate dropped his sword and fell to the ground, fatigued as he was from four days of walking from village to village, going hungry, scrounging for Lien to buy food and rent hotel rooms, and now the most energy he had exerted in two short minutes that he'd done in the past half week... it was almost too much for him._

 _Slate looked up, and his green eyes widened as he saw someone standing before him, a woman. Or at least, Slate suspected it was a woman by the shape of her body, since he couldn't see her face, due to the fact that it was placed under a mask that looked very much like a Grimm's face. The mask had four eye-slits, to somehow further enhance the look._

 _Slate was still as the woman approached him silently, unmoved by the village seeming to burn around the pair of them. An Ursa Minor approached from the women's right, but she quickly drew a sword from a sheath on her left hip, and cut the Grimm in half without even sparing it a glance._

 _Returning the sword to her sheath, she stopped in front of Slate, and bent down so her face (at least Slate assumed she had a face under the mask) was just above Slate's._

" _What's your name, little one?" the woman asked, her voice very slightly muffled under her mask. Slate swallowed, as his throat was dry, and took a few breaths before answering._

" _S-Slate." he replied, looking up into the woman's eyes that he could see under her mask. They were a smouldering red._

" _Well, Slate." the woman replied. "I don't say this very often to children like you, but you're quite the fighter. It's not very often I come across a ten-year-old looking child killing a pair of moderately-sized Beowolves."_

" _I'm twelve." Slate replied. He was rather short for his age, and hadn't hit his growth spurt yet._

" _Twelve, then. I apologize." the woman replied. "My name is Raven." Under her mask, she looked Slate up and down, noting his thin body, torn clothes that were almost hanging off his body (she noticed the YAMP emblem on Slate's right arm) and dirty face. "You have nowhere to go, do you?"_

 _Slate blinked at Raven's accurate perception, and could only shake his head in response. Raven nodded in reply, and drew herself up to her full height._

" _Well, then." Raven replied, holding a hand out to Slate. "Come with me. I could use another helper. Or you could just live here, I guess." she gestured to the village, which was pretty much absolutely destroyed._

" _I'll... come with you." Slate replied, getting up and taking Raven's hand. Raven smiled under her mask, and turned around._

" _You made the right choice." she informed of Slate, as she walked him out of the village, and towards his new life._

Flashback end

"And that's how I met Raven." Slate finished his tale to Yang, who had sat down in front of him while he recounted his first meeting with the Branwen Tribe leader. "I went back with her to her tribe, and I came to view her as my mother about six months after that happened, and she was fine with me changing my surname to Branwen." Yang's eyes (which had faded back to their regular lilac colour) were wide as Slate swallowed, his throat dry from all the talking he had done. "Any questions?"

Yang looked down, not speaking for once, as several things rushed through her mind at once. For one thing, she was undeniably upset that Raven, her OWN FUCKING MOTHER, had adopted Slate in lieu of staying with her and her father, Taiyang Xiao Long, and raising her, her own daughter, but the fact that, given how Slate had told the story, Raven hadn't willingly gone out of her way to adopt Slate, or done anything beyond simply inviting him into her tribe, calmed her down a little bit.

"Well?" Slate stood up, preparing to walk out of the arena and leave Yang on the floor. "Anything at all?"

"What was it like living with Raven?" Yang asked, from her position on the floor. Slate looked back, and remained silent for a couple of seconds before answering.

"It was... really simple." he replied. "If you can't fight, you can't live. That was what Raven told me. Life in the Branwen Tribe was pretty much a direct contrast to the high society up in Atlas that I lived in for the first twelve years of my existence on this planet."

"Oh yeah, speaking of living in Atlas," Yang stood up as well. "I remember Weiss telling me that she knew someone named Slate from her childhood up in the Atlesian north. Was that you?"

"How many other Slates that lived in Atlas do you know?" Slate asked, slight sarcasm in his tone, before sighing. "Yes, that was me. Why d'you ask?"

"Was just curious." Yang replied, taking a step towards Slate. "And in all honesty, it would be funny to see Weiss' reaction to me getting with her childhood friend, would it not?"

"For you, I don't know, and I don't care." Slate replied. "For me..." Without another word, Slate stepped out of the sparring arena, just in time to see the rest of his team walking into the gym, and noticing him.

Eirwen happily jogged over to her boyfriend and threw her arms around him before planting a kiss on his lips, while Lapis began loudly protesting Slate's earlier remark, that what she, Azzurro and Eirwen were watching on their Scrolls earlier was just fictional crap.

But Slate was hardly listening as he kissed his white-haired girlfriend back, and walked out of the gym with her and his two other teammates, while Yang stepped out of the arena while taking off her tank-top (as it was sticking to her body from how hard she was sweating).

She had quite a bit to think about.

 **Line Break**

Pyrrha swerved around an attempted stab from Weiss' rapier, Myrtenaster, and slashed with her own weapon, Miló (which took the form of a short one-handed sword), hitting Weiss twice in the back and dealing damage to her Aura, which flashed light blue, before the Schnee Heiress turned around and stabbed her rapier into the ground, creating a Glyph (through the use of her Semblance) under Pyrrha and shooting ice Dust out through it.

However, Pyrrha jumped up into the air, flipped in mid-air and landed on the ground in front of Weiss. She used Akoúo, a bronze shield, to block Weiss from stabbing her again, and pulled the shield aside (with Myrtenaster still comically embedded in it), in order to give her free range to slash at the unguarded Weiss with Miló a couple more times, before delivering a kick to the white-haired student's gut to send her away and onto the ground, her Aura flickering dangerously.

As Weiss glared up at Pyrrha, lights came on in the raised arena they were fighting in, and Glynda Goodwitch, the combat instructor at Beacon Academy, came onto the stage, declaring "And that's the match! By way of Aura drop, Pyrrha Nikos wins."

There was light applause from all the first-years, though no applause was greater than that coming from Jaune, Nora and Ren, Pyrrha's teammates. Slate and Eirwen politely applauded as well, though Slate had a smirk on his face. Though he was absolutely certain that he could take Pyrrha on (though he had no way of proving it, as he and Pyrrha had never been made to fight each other in a sparring class), her ability, both with and without weapons, was certainly nothing to sneeze at.

"And I believe that's all the time we have for today." Glynda put her Scroll away as Pyrrha and Weiss left the stage. "Remember everyone!" she raised her voice to the fourteen first-year students in front of her. "The Vytal Festival is just a few months away! It won't be too long before students from other Kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing. Those who choose to compete must inform Professor Peach as soon as possible." Right as she finished her little speech, the bell rang. "Dismissed."

Stretching, as he had been sat down for three quarters of the lesson (with an absolute CAKEWALK of a fight against Russel Thrush being all the time he got to stretch his legs), Slate stood up and left the classroom with the other three members of his team following. Along with, after she watched Weiss leave with a sour expression on her face, one Ruby Rose.

"Slate!" Ruby called out to him. "Wait up!"

Slate turned around and, when he saw Ruby coming towards him, ordered his team to head to the cafeteria and that he would catch up with them later.

"What's up, Ruby?" Slate asked, as the silver-eyed girl stopped in front of him.

"Weren't you going to show me how those wings work?" she asked, blinking at the device that held them, which Slate was holding by its strap in one hand. "Sorry I didn't come to you earlier about it, I've been caught up in homework." she giggled, nervously, and Slate rolled his eyes.

"Fine." he replied, jerking his head backward. "Come on." Ruby proceeded to eagerly follow him for the two minutes' walk it took to get from the combat classroom to Beacon Academy's workshop, a place that students could use to do regular weapon upkeep, or just repair them outright if something went wrong with them.

There were only two other students in the workshop, with one of them being Coco Adel, the girl who'd taken Slate to the Beacon gym a couple of days ago. With her was a girl who Slate immediately identified as a Faunus, due to the large pair of brown rabbit ears on her head.

Apart from this, she had long brown hair and brown eyes, and wore the female Beacon Academy uniform.

She seemed to be working on her weapon, which looked like a camera of some sort. Coco looked up, and noticed Slate and Ruby, the former of whom was slinging the pack that contained his wings onto the nearest workbench.

"Hey, Slate." Coco greeted the black-haired first-year. "You're looking good today."

"Hello Coco." Slate replied, grabbing a screwdriver and beginning to unscrew one of the metal plates on the back of the wingpack. "Who's your friend?"

"My teammate, Velvet." Coco replied, playfully throwing an arm around Velvet and hugging her close to her as Velvet put her camera-weapon back together. "Cute, isn't she?"

Slate shifted his eyes from what he was doing to get a look at Velvet, and inwardly agreed with Coco.

"I guess." he replied, before looking back at what he was doing (not noticing Velvet going beet-red at being indirectly called cute by a boy in a non-derogatory way), and taking off the other metal plate on the back of his wingpack. "Now, Ruby?" he addressed his junior. "You wanna see how my wings work? Here you go."

Ruby (who was looking over at some of the spare weapons that were lying around the workshop) dashed back to where Slate was stood, and looked inside his wingpack, where his wings were folded into the small space, one on either side, and there seemed to be a cartridge for Dust in the middle of it.

"The wings compress and fold into the pack back here." Slate pointed out the wings, and Ruby nodded, listening attentively. "The dust cartridge here uses regular energy Dust in order for me to achieve lift, and I steer by just moving my body around."

"Wow..." Ruby looked down. "Must've taken a while for you to build this. I mean it looks so intricate!"

"It is." Slate replied. "And this model, which I believe is the fourth one I've made, the one you see Eirwen using is the third iteration I've made, she plans to upgrade it soon, did take a while to make. Not as long as it took for me to build the first one."

"Well of course." Ruby replied, feeling more confident to talk about a subject she was extremely passionate about. "You had the first three models to work off of."

"Right you are, Little Red." Slate replied, smiling at Ruby before his face dropped back into its neutral look. "The first one took me three months to build, though to be fair, that was in a cave. With a box of scraps."

"Oh..." Ruby replied, not exactly catching the implications of Slate's last remark. "Question, are those wings carbon-fibre?"

"Yeah." Slate replied. "Only added it to the wings with the third iteration. Before that I had to use metal to make the wings look like actual wings, which stopped me from being able to compress them into this little wingpack here." he tapped the dissected pack on the desk, and reached for one of the metal plates to screw back onto the wingpack.

"Well that would explain how the wings are so rigid, yet so flexible." Ruby surmised. "That's awesome. Maybe even more awesome than Crescent Rose."

"What, that giant scythe that would be utterly useless against faster opponents and/or in a tight space?" Slate asked, as he finished screwing the first plate in and reaching for the second one. As he began screwing the second one in, Ruby pouted at Slate's jab at her weapon, but had to admit, after a moment's thought, that he had a valid point.

"Say..." Ruby paused after she spoke. "Do you think you could make a set of wings for me? Please?" Slate looked down at Ruby, and sighed at the girl who was over half a foot smaller than he was.

"Sorry, Red." he replied. "I'm gonna have to turn you down there. I don't want my work to fall into the wrong hands." Once he'd finished screwing the final metal plate into the wingpack, he pulled it onto his back, strapped himself in with only a small amount of difficulty, and walked out of the workshop after patting Ruby on the shoulder. "Hope you understand."

"Y-yeah..." Ruby replied, her face falling as she watched Slate activate his wings via his Scroll, and fly off back to his dorm room.

 **And that's the fifth chapter of Son of the General! We get to see who's the stronger one between Slate and Yang in a weaponless fight (everyone who thinks that Slate is a weakling just because he lost to Yang, don't worry. Slate would DESTROY her if they both had access to their respective weapons), you now know how Slate met Raven, and we get a good little scene between Slate and Ruby.**

 **Regarding the harem poll: as you can see, it's been closed and taken down, with the three winners being Yang, Winter and Velvet. So in all, Slate's harem will consist of Eirwen (Blake's half-sister), Yang, Winter and Velvet.**

 **Also, out of curiosity, has anyone read the new RWBY novel about Team CFVY that came out recently, or listened to the Volume 6 soundtrack? Both are really fucking good (I'm still recovering from how Indomitable emotionally drained me…).**

 **Anyway, now that that's done, what did you think of this chapter? Please, review and let me know, because I really do love hearing feedback. If you fancy letting me know about some possible ideas you might have for later in the story, just let me know in a review or PM (or talk to me on Discord (my name for it is on my profile)), as I really enjoy talking to readers!**

 **Next Time: An Argument, Detention**

 **Preview of Next Chapter:**

" _What?" Slate glared at Glynda as Cardin got up, surprised at how easily Slate had just picked him up and thrown him down. "I would've put him down anyway. Though it'd probably have been through the window._

 **Seeya!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Anything you recognise isn't mine.**

"So, what's your Semblance, Azzurro?" Slate asked, his hands in his pockets as he and his three teammates walked out of the class of Dr. Bartholomew Oobleck, the history teacher at Beacon Academy, looking far calmer than he usually was. "I don't think I've actually asked."

"Well, look who's the one approaching his teammates after a month." Azzurro grinned, shoving his hands in his pockets as he and Slate walked, keeping in step with each other, down the hallway, with Eirwen and Lapis catching up to them and talking to each other. "But thanks for asking." He pulled a pencil out of his pocket.

"My Semblance lets me make anything I throw come back to me like a boomerang." Azzurro explained, winding up and throwing the pencil down the hallway. Slate watched it go as Azzurro held his hand out, and after a couple of seconds of the pencil flying, it slowed down to a stop, and began flying back, spinning through the air almost exactly like it had seconds before, and landing right in Azzurro's outstretched hand, before he placed the pencil back into his pocket. "No wonder how impractical I throw it. Though it certainly helps if I throw something well."

"Yeah. That would help a lot." Slate replied, as Eirwen and Lapis approached and fell into step beside their respective boyfriends. "Hey, girls."

"Hi." Eirwen replied, wrapping her arm around Slate and pressing her lips against his neck, momentarily. "What were you talking about?"

"Semblances." Slate replied, looking at Azzurro and Lapis for a moment before turning left to walk out of the main school building and towards the building that the cafeteria was held.

"Oh, really?" Lapis blinked. "My Semblance can disable the Semblances of other people by touching them. Though it's only limited to one person at a time."

"Cool." Slate nodded in approval. "Kinda similar to Eirwen's Semblance. She can copy the Semblances of other people just by touching them."

Lapis nodded in reply as Eirwen hummed, confirming what Slate said.

"It's true." she replied. "And it's limited to one person at a time, just like you." Lapis giggled, and teasingly poked Eirwen's arm.

"Copy-Cat." she remarked, making Eirwen growl, and playfully punch Lapis on the arm as she retracted it. However, Eirwen's punch sent Lapis sliding across the floor and lightly slamming against the wall, where she groaned, her Aura flashing a light purple.

"Don't call me Copy-Cat." Eirwen glared at Lapis as she smirked. Neither of the two young women could see it, but Slate smirked as well. He knew that Eirwen disliked being called that name (he'd found that little fact out the hard way).

"Or what?" Lapis replied, considering getting into a battle stance as Eirwen's glare intensified. "What're you gonna do, Cop-" Before she could finish the sentence, Eirwen jumped forward and grabbed Lapis by the shirt, before lifting her up. It was a rather amusing sight for both Slate and Azzurro (as Eirwen was the shorter of the two by about four inches), but not for Weiss, who looked at Eirwen and Lapis with a disapproving glare as she walked past.

"Gods, can't you keep your animalistic fighting out of the hallways?" she asked, her nose in the air. "We have a sparring arena in the gym for things of that nature."

"Good idea, Snowy." Eirwen replied, letting go of Lapis' shirt and letting her drop to the ground, before walking in the direction of the gym, with her purple-haired teammate. But not before she swivelled around and kicked Weiss in the back of the legs, making her fall over.

Slate's Faunus girlfriend was out of sight before Weiss could even get up and shriek at her for acting so horribly to her, so she did the second-best thing that she could: Shout out to her childhood friend.

"Slate!" Weiss called out. "Shouldn't you try and keep your degenerate Faunus girlfriend in line? She could have really injured me with that kick!"

Slate looked around, and was actually considering opening his mouth to reply to Weiss, and speak to her for the first time in nearly seven years, but when the sound of her comment about Eirwen hit his ears, he closed his mouth and walked off to the cafeteria with Azzurro, not acknowledging, either mentally or physically, Weiss' shouts for him to come back and talk to her.

 **Line Break**

Ten minutes after Slate and Azzurro had entered Beacon's cafeteria, they were almost done eating their dinner. While looking over the menus on their Scrolls and finishing up the last of their evening meal, the two males of Team SEAL were conferring over what to have for their desert.

"I think I'll just have chocolate ice cream." Slate remarked, as his mint-coloured eyes travelled down the menu, narrowing slightly at some of the more... extravagant options.

"You sure?" Azzurro asked. "You looked at the Angel Cake?"

"Yeah." Slate replied. "Doesn't look like something I'd like." Azzurro shrugged, and touched the image of the Angel Cake (a blue, flowery-looking cake with frosting on top that was shaped like wings) on his scroll, ordering it.

"Fair enough." the blue-haired Huntsman-in-training replied. "Looks like something that Eirwen would like."

"Someone say my name?" Eirwen's voice came from the top of the table that Slate and Azzurro were sitting at. The two teenage boys looked up to see their girlfriends walking in and taking seats beside them. Eirwen looked fine, but Slate noticed that she was breathing a little more heavily than she usually did.

Lapis, however, was sporting a bloody nose and was limping.

"I take it you won?" Slate remarked to his girlfriend, wrapping an arm around her and holding her close to him for a couple of seconds.

"I did." Eirwen replied, smirking at Lapis, who stuck her middle finger up at her, prompting Eirwen to stick both her middle fingers up at Lapis in return. "Guess I'm the stronger girlfriend after all."

"Fuck you." Lapis replied, though a small smile appeared on her face. "You tripped me the hell up, you little bitch! That's why you won!"

"Not my fault you fell for it." Eirwen replied, smirking at Lapis before turning to Slate. "Is dinner still available?"

"I think so." Slate replied. "Though I was just ordering desert." Eirwen shrugged.

"Fair." she replied, pulling out her Scroll. "I think I will too. It isn't like we haven't gone without dinner before."

Slate nodded in agreement, and touched the image of the chocolate ice cream on his Scroll, ordering it. Eirwen did the same, as Lapis ordered vanilla ice cream.

Both deserts came within minutes, and the four of them were happily tearing through them while talking about homework that they had from Dr. Oobleck. However, the loud sounds of mocking laugher cut through the general quiet chatter of the cafeteria.

Slate turned around, wondering what was going on, and saw Cardin Winchester, the orange-haired boy who had called Eirwen an animal on the original trip to Beacon, and his teammates, seemingly picking on Velvet, the brown-haired bunny girl that Slate had seen hanging around with Coco (he had a sneaking suspicion in the back of his mind that they were an item).

One of the boys, who Slate was pretty sure went by the name Sky Lark, was holding his hands just above his head, imitating Velvet's rabbit-ears. As Velvet tried to get up and walk away from Team CRDL, Cardin reached out and pulled on one of her large ears, causing her to cry out in pain.

"Ow...! That hurts!" she grimaced in pain as Cardin pulled harder on her ear. "Please stop..."

Eirwen was watching the events unfolding in front of her, and Slate could see that, in the state of increased adrenaline from her fight with Lapis that she was in, she was pretty close to walking over to Cardin and beating the shit out of him there and then.

Before she could go and do such a thing, however, Slate stood up himself, laying a hand on Eirwen's shoulder.

"Don't bother." he muttered. "I'll handle this."

"I told you they were real!" Cardin laughed to his cronies as he let Velvet go at last.

"What a freak!" Russel joined in with his leader's laughter as Slate approached them, a glare on his face. Velvet had seen him coming just beforehand and had tried to stop him, in hushed whispers, but her pleas fell on deaf ears as Slate came up to Cardin, and without a second's hesitation, pulled his fist back and punched him square in the face.

Cardin reeled from the sudden attack, and looked at Slate, glaring at him. He stood up to his full height, towering over the leader of Team SEAL.

"The hell was that for, Branwen?!" he shouted down at Slate, shoving him backwards and beginning to stomp towards him.

"Guess." Slate replied, simply, as Cardin pulled his fist back, preparing to deliver a punch of his own. However, Slate stepped aside, dodging Cardin's punch with little effort.

"What we were doing was just a joke!" Cardin yelled as Slate hopped up onto the nearest bench, so that the two boys were on a similar level.

"Really?" Slate replied, throwing two quick punches at Cardin's face, knocking him back a couple of feet. "You think those were just jokes? Huh?"

Growling, Cardin rushed towards Slate, trying to punch him again, but Slate dropped down to the ground, letting Cardin's punch go over his head. He swivelled around the leader of Team CRDL so he was behind him, and delivered a hard punch to the larger boy's lower back. When Cardin turned around, Slate delivered another punch to his face for good measure.

Cardin, letting out a roar, tried to grab Slate, but the smaller boy leant back, dodging Cardin's large hands and delivering another two punches to Cardin's face as he leaned forward again. He hopped back up onto a bench and grabbed the back of Cardin's head, pulling him in for another punch that sent Cardin back, slightly dazed from the multiple blows to the head.

Before the orange-haired boy (who felt the humiliation of dozens of eyes watching him being laid out by a boy only three-quarters his size, as well as the hits he was taking) could get a grasp of the situation, Slate rammed his head into his knee, and lifted him off the ground.

Everyone: the rest of Team SEAL, Teams RWBY and JNPR, a few other assorted students, along with Coco, who had entered the cafeteria along with a teenage boy with dark skin and dark, messy copper hair and a tall and athletic-looking young man with shaved-short black hair and tanned skin, watched Slate Branwen lift Cardin Winchester, a boy who looked to absolutely be heavier than he was, above his head.

The arms of the smaller boy shook slightly from the weight of the larger boy above him, but overall, they were quite steady. However, they almost buckled from Slate's surprise of hearing Glynda's sharp voice crack at him like the riding crop she carried everywhere.

"Mr. BRANWEN!"

Everyone else jumped and looked around to see the combat instructor of Beacon Academy glaring at Slate, pointing her crop at him.

"Hey, Professor." Slate replied, his voice more casual than most expected it should be. Glynda's eyes narrowed, and travelled from Cardin to Slate.

"Put Mr. Winchester down." she ordered of the first-year. "Now." she added, as Slate narrowed her eyes at her in return.

"Fine." Slate replied. He then did as he was bidden, putting Cardin down on the ground. Though 'putting him on the ground' might not be the best phrase to use. 'Slamming him down onto the table, breaking it under the force of such an act' would probably be a more fitting one.

There was silence as Slate looked around at the students, who were all shocked at what he'd just done, while Cardin just rolled off the table and remained on the floor.

"What?" he blinked. "I could've thrown him out the window if I so wanted, and it would've come under 'putting him down'.

There were quiet murmurs of agreement all around, but they were quickly silenced by Glynda slapping the closest table to her with her crop, as a metaphorical call for quiet, as she looked Slate squarely in the eyes (which, she was just noticing for the first time, were very similar to her own).

"My office. Tomorrow night." she uttered, her voice as cold as the ice Dust that Weiss commonly used, before pointing her crop at the table under Cardin and putting it back together with her Semblance. She then turned on her heel and left the cafeteria.

Slate shrugged, and left the cafeteria himself, only vaguely noticing Coco, who was now joined by Velvet, as well as her two (presumed) teammates, coming up to him.

"Didn't ask for thanks, don't need it, forget about it." he told Coco in a curt voice, just as she opened her mouth to thank Slate. The rest of Team SEAL followed their leader out of the cafeteria, leaving the room in silence.

 **Line Break**

Back in the forests of Anima, Raven had just undergone another raid with her Tribe. Two bags of stolen loot in hand, she led the five dozen or so men and women that had chosen to live outside the jurisdiction of the bastards leading the Kingdom of Mistral back into camp, where they emptied their bags and surveyed what they had found.

While the black-haired tribeswoman bent down to survey some food that one of the tribesmen had pilfered, she looked up and, in the dim light of the early morning, saw a pair of small, beady red eyes staring down at her. She could also vaguely make out the body of a bird just under those eyes.

The body of a crow, to be specific.

Raven narrowed her eyes, and after placing the food down so it wouldn't become dirty (hey, she may have lived in the wild for the past nearly-twenty years, but Raven Branwen had SOME standards, with basic goddamn hygiene being one of them), before standing up.

"Get all this loot into storage!" she ordered of her tribe, while placing the two bags she was carrying down on the ground. "I have something that needs seeing to."

Raven then walked out of camp, watching the red-eyed bird take off as she did so, and walked a little ways away from the camp, almost to the outskirts of the forest that camp was located in.

After barely a minute, the red-eyed bird that had been watching her arrived as well, swooping down behind a tree and coming out behind it in the form of a man: of Raven's younger twin brother, Qrow Branwen.

Qrow was taller than Raven. He had greying-black, spiky hair, dull red eyes and slight stubble along his jawline. Along with a red, tattered cloak, he wore a grey dress shirt with a long tail, black dress pants and black dress shoes.

He also wore a ring on his right index finger, two other rings on his right ring finger and a necklace with a crooked cross-shaped pendant.

"Brother." Raven addressed Qrow, with the tone in her voice making it quite clear that he disliked the fact that her brother was present.

"Raven." Qrow replied, the tone in his voice making it just as clear that he disliked his sister just as much as she disliked him. "Where's the kid?"

"What kid?" Raven asked, raising her ebony eyebrows.

"The kid that's been hanging around you for a while." Qrow replied, reaching into his shirt and pulling out a flask. "He's not around. Where is he?"

"What does it matter to you?" Raven asked, narrowing her eyes as Qrow took a swig of alcohol before placing the flask back where he got it from. "I thought you hated children. That's why you quit your job at Signal, wasn't it?"

Qrow gave a small 'hmph' as Raven continued talking.

"Besides. If you're as smart as you think you are, why don't you figure it out brother?"

Qrow blinked at his older sister, who smirked. She could see the cogs slowly turning in his drunken head, before they clicked, and he figured it out.

"Why did you send him to a Huntsman Academy?" Qrow asked, taking a step forward and glaring at Raven, who just folded her arms and didn't budge.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She replied. "I didn't send him anywhere. Slate chose to attend Beacon, just as I chose to stay out of the pointless shit that you chose to get yourself involved in. I had nothing to do with it."

Qrow's eyes narrowed as he briefly considered drawing Harbinger, but decided against it. He resorted to merely clenching his fists as his glare intensified. He didn't believe Raven for a second, though he had a sneaking feeling that his older sister knew this.

"But again, what does it matter to you, brother?" Raven asked, icily. "I doubt you came all this way to ask about where my son might or might not be."

"I came to ask if you've been experiencing the funny weather that's been occurring around Anima lately." Qrow replied, his voice calmer. "Some people have been saying that it's just a natural change in climate, but I'm pretty sure you and I know what's really going down."

Raven's eyes and nostrils flared at her younger brother's thinly-veiled accusation.

"You should leave." Raven ordered of her little brother, placing a hand on the handle of her sheathed sword. "I think I'm done listening to fools for one day."

After checking her Scroll for the time, Raven swung her sword to open one of her red and black portals, and turned around to walk through it.

"Don't walk away from me, Raven!" Qrow shouted, running after his older sister as she disappeared, drawing Harbinger, his weapon, as he did so. "We're not done here, I know what you're hiding!"

But before Qrow could reach Raven, she had disappeared, causing Qrow to lose his footing and fall on the floor. He cursed under his breath as he got to his feet, and placed Harbinger back into a holster on his back.

Scratching a random itch that flared on his ass, Qrow heard the sounds of tribesmen approaching the outskirts of the forest, where he was. He then transformed back into a bird, and flew away, thinking it best that he didn't get into a fight with his former family.

Bunch of killers and thieves, they were.

 **Line Break**

"Uhh... Yang?" Ruby asked of her older half-sister, as the two of them sat on their beds in their dorm. "Can I... um, copy your history notes?"

"Copy my history notes?" Yang looked up from her Scroll, which she was using to watch a video of the Achieve Men, a boy-band that she was a big fan of, and sighed at her little sister, who seemed to be looking at something on her own Scroll. "Sure. Just let me grab them real quick."

The blonde Huntress-in-training slid off her bed, landed slightly messily on the floor, and bent down to look through her stuff and find her book of history notes. Eventually, she found said book, and handed it up to her little sister. "Here. What're you watching?"

Yang lingered at her little sister's/leader's bed to get a glimpse of what she was watching, and found that she was watching a video of Slate that she had recorded during sparring class. It was a fight between him and Nora, and Ruby was closely watching the way Slate moved when he activated his wings.

Yang also watched the recorded video, seeing how Slate activated his wings to get small bursts of air-time, that allowed him to dodge the grenades that Nora fired at him with ease, and swoop in for a counter-attack that allowed him to knock Nora down. The video just ended as Glynda called the fight and declared it to be Slate's victory, as had every single one of the fights that he had been involved in (sans one weaponless duel with Eirwen).

"Man, you really like Slate's wings, don't you?" Yang rhetorically asked. Ruby nodded excitedly.

"Yeah!" she replied, a smile on her cute face. "They're the coolest thing I've ever seen, and the way Slate uses them..." Yang swore that she could see her little sister drooling slightly. "It just looks even better!"

"If I didn't know better, little sister..." Yang remarked, a sly smile on her face. "I'd say you wanted Slate as a boyfriend."

"He is a boyfriend!" Ruby replied, defensively. "My best boyfriend."

The innocent leader of Team RWBY didn't quite realise the implications of what she had said until she saw Yang's reaction, which was to LAUGH SO HARD that she let go of her little sister's bed and landed on the ground.

Ruby's face had gone redder than her hood as Yang rolled over, almost crying with laughter.

"D-do you realise... what you just said?!" Yang wheezed through her laughs.

"I do now!" Ruby shouted in reply, pulling her hood up to cover her face from her embarassment. "I mean that Slate is a friend of mine that's a boy. Making him a boy-friend!"

Yang's laughs subsided slightly as she sat up, wiping the remnants of tears from her face.

"Alright. Alright." She replied, getting to her feet. "You're an innocent little cookie, you know that?"

Ruby just pouted and pulled Yang's notes towards her so she could copy them into her own book, while the door to their dorm opened and Weiss walked in, looking even more annoyed than she usually did.

"What's up, Weiss?" Yang asked her white-haired teammate. "You look pissed. Well, even more pissed than normal."

"It's Slate!" Weiss replied, glaring at Yang for a second as she rolled onto her bed, and pulled her books towards her. "It's been a month since we started at Beacon, and he hasn't talked to me once! He's deliberately avoiding me!"

"Maybe it's because you're the biggest bitch in our year." Yang muttered, as she climbed back up onto her bed, and powered her Scroll on again. Weiss heard Yang's remark, and evidently it touched a nerve, given how she screwed up her face into a rather ugly expression.

"Excuse me?!" Weiss shouted across the room at Yang. "I'm not the biggest bitch in our year! What about Team CRDL?"

"They're bullying dicks, not bitches." Yang replied, her eyes narrowing. "There's a difference between them and you."

"Maybe." Weiss replied, her glare intensifying. "But I don't see how Slate's deliberately avoiding me now. It's been five years, shouldn't he be happy to see me again?"

"Well evidently, he's changed." Blake's voice came from outside the dorm. Ruby, Weiss and Yang all turned to see their black-haired teammate walking in, book in hand. "From the five years ago that you last saw him, that is."

"And what would you know about that, hmm?" Weiss replied to Blake, turning to the bow-clad girl as she walked over to her bed and put the books that she was carrying on the shelf nearby. "I suppose you and that Eirwen girl are just the closest of siblings, aren't you?"

"Uhh, Weiss, I'm not sure that's entirely true." Ruby spoke up, pulling her hood down to reveal her pale face (which was no longer blushing a deep-ass red) again. "I haven't seen Blake speak to Eirwen once. N-no offence, Blake."

"It's fine." Blake replied, her tone more clipped than before. However, Weiss wasn't done.

"Just like Ruby and Yang, just like Azzurro and Lapis, just like Nora and Ren, I bet you just hang around with Eirwen, as opposed to your own team, Blake!" she shrilly cried while stepping towards Blake, who turned around. "You're just so-"

"SHUT UP!" Blake yelled, when Weiss got too close to her for her liking, making her jump back in surprise. "I ACTUALLY KNOW EXACTLY HOW YOU FEEL, YOU JUDGEMENTAL LITTLE BRAT! DON'T ASSUME SHIT YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME AND EIRWEN!"

Ruby and Yang, who were both beginning to tune out of Weiss' rants, both started in surprise when they heard Blake raising her voice, which she almost never did. Ruby actually jumped so hard that she fell out of her bed from surprise, and landed on the floor.

Weiss, in any other situation, would've shouted back at Blake, but the fact that she had raised her voice at her was enough to silence her for the time being.

Yang was too busy looking at Blake to look at her little sister falling to the ground (though she had full Aura, which meant that Ruby, in all honesty, was completely fine).

None of the members of Team RWBY noticed the door to their dorm opening, or Jaune Arc slowly poking his head through it.

"Uh... guys?" he asked, slowly. "You okay?"

The tension in the room was so palpable that even the thick-headed blond knew not to get involved. He quickly retreated and shut the door behind him.

 **Line Break**

It was the next night, and Slate was walking through Beacon Academy, finding his way to Glynda's office for, what he presumed, was a detention with Glynda. After turning left, Slate headed down a corridor, past Dr. Oobleck's classroom.

When he reached the end of the corridor, he almost found himself walking directly into Pyrrha Nikos, with the only thing stopping the pair of them from ending up on their respective asses being the fact that Slate noticed her coming, and was able to call out to her to stop her from hitting him.

"Hey, Pyrrha."

The redheaded Mistral champion started in surprise, and turned around. She looked slightly upset.

"Hello, Slate." she smiled. "Sorry I didn't see you coming."

"It's fine." Slate replied. "What's up? You don't look as happy as you usually do."

"It's n-nothing." Pyrrha replied, smiling at Slate. "Just... stuff in the team, that's all."

"Hm." Slate hummed, sceptical of Pyrrha's answer but choosing not to ask further. "What're you doing out, anyway?"

"I had to see Professor Goodwitch." Pyrrha replied. "She's offered to move me up to the second-year sparring class because of my record in the first-year classes."

"I see." Slate replied, recalling how Pyrrha was the only first-year to have had a perfect record in their sparring classes, having won every single fight that she was placed in. Including one against him. "What did you say?"

"I turned her down." Pyrrha looked down at the ground as she replied. "I didn't want to be seen as more of a show-off than I'm already looked at as."

"Fair enough." Slate nodded, as Pyrrha looked at him again. "I mean, they call you the 'Invincible Girl' for a reason." Pyrrha giggled, a smile returning to her face as she looked at Slate.

"Yes, I guess they do." she replied. "And I like the name, in spite of how it killed any chance of a meaningful relationship with someone outside of my family in Argus. Hell, even a normal conversation with anyone was hard, until I came to Beacon."

She took a breath, and continued.

"But now, I've made friendships that will last long after I graduate Beacon, maybe for my entire life. It's why I chose to come here instead of Haven, because of the reduced chances of being hounded by adoring fans like I would be at Haven, or pulled into the Special Operations team at Atlas. I guess my instinct told me that by coming here, I could feel like I had something close to a normal life back."

She took another breath, and looked over at Slate, who was leaning against a wall now and looking at her, an amused look on his face.

"You done?" he asked. Pyrrha went pink, and looked down at the floor again.

"S-sorry!" she replied. "I forgot you were there and just started venting."

"Hey, it's fine." Slate replied. "Happens to the best of us. Hey, you said you were with Glynda, right? Think you can point me in the direction of her office?"

"Oh, yes." Pyrrha smiled, her pink flush slowly disappearing. "It's just down the corridor, and the first door on your right as you turn right. Can't miss it."

"Thanks." Slate replied, waving to Pyrrha as he walked away, following her directions to Glynda's office, where she was waiting for him outside. "Hey."

"Hello, Mr. Branwen." Glynda replied, a stern look on her face. "Glad you could finally make it."

"Got hold up." Slate replied, as Glynda ushered him inside and shut the door behind him. "But at least I'm here, right?"

Glynda silently nodded, and gestured to a chair that was situated in front of her desk, and Slate, taking the hint, sat in it as Glynda sat down at her desk, and observed Slate through her glasses.

"So, Mr. Branwen." Glynda spoke quietly to Slate. "I'm sure you're wondering why you're here."

"Probably to get a lecture about why violence against violent bullies is something that should be crushed." Slate replied, bluntly and truthfully. After he finished his answer, he swore that he could see Glynda's mouth twitching slightly before she answered.

"Well, I'm not exactly sure that I would word it that way, but that is one of the reasons that I asked you here." the blonde Huntress replied. "Another reason is that I wanted to ask you a few things." she then leaned forward. "What was your life like before you came to Beacon?"

Slate blinked, slightly confused as to why Glynda would ask him such a question.

"I, uhh..." he licked his lips. "I was raised in Atlas. My dad was pretty high-up in the Atlas military, so he wasn't around a lot. He enrolled me in the Young Atlesians' Military Program when I was ten, and I spent most of my time on missions with other people my age."

"I see." Glynda replied. "You know, most of those that get enrolled into the YAMP end up in one of the Special Operations units once they graduate from there, and later from Atlas Academy. I believe the official statistic is 60%."

"I thought it was something like that." Slate replied. "Though I guessed that the figure was a bit lower. Like 40 to 50%." Glynda nodded.

"That's reasonable." she leaned back in her chair, continuing to regard Slate through her mint-coloured eyes. "Continue."

"Right." Slate replied. "Well after a couple of years in the program, I was sent on an expedition to Anima along with a few other members, and we were led by one of the Special Operatives, Winter Schnee. But the mission went wrong: I got separated from the team during a Grimm attack, and I ended up lost in a country that I had no idea how to traverse."

Glynda blinked, and let out a small sigh.

"I'm sorry to hear that." she replied. "It... it must have been scary for you."

"Sure was." Slate replied, leaning back in the chair he was sat on. "I was stranded in the north of Anima for a few weeks. Running from place to place, scouring villages for food and water, sleeping on the streets..." he shuddered slightly from the memories. "I guess those lessons that the YAMP taught us about how to sleep comfortably in the most uncomfortable-sounding places that you could come across on missions worked out pretty well for me."

"I guess." Glynda mumbled, her face softening slightly as she regarded Slate. 'Poor boy...' she thought.

"But I still managed to find a home." Slate continued. "During a Grimm attack at a village that I was sleeping in, I was rescued by a woman who offered to let me stay with her and her family. I accepted, and I've lived with her for the past five years as her adopted son. I took the entrance exams for Beacon Academy a few months ago, passed, and... here I am." he gestured to himself. "That's my story, I guess."

"I see." Glynda replied, choosing the words that would make up her next question very carefully. "This woman who took you into her family... was her name Raven?"

Slate's initial reaction to Glynda's question was all the answer he needed. He tensed up immediately and his eyes narrowed slightly.

"How did you kn-?" he tried to catch himself before he could finish his question, which just came out on reflex, but realising his mistake, he cursed. "Shit." He closed his eyes. "Yes, that is her name. What of it?" he opened his eyes. "Why do you care so much about my pre-Beacon life? I never heard you asking anyone what their life was like before Beacon."

"I'll be asking the questions here, Mr. Branwen." Glynda replied, her voice hardening again momentarily, before she sighed. "But you're right, I haven't summoned any of the other students to ask them about their pre-Beacon life... because none of the other students popped out of me nearly two decades ago."

Slate blinked, momentarily confused, before it clicked in his mind.

…

Glynda was his mother. His birth mother.

 **And that's the sixth chapter of Son of the General! We've heard about the rest of Team SEAL's Semblances (except Slate's, but we'll be seeing that next chapter), we get to see Slate lay down some SWEET justice to Cardin Wincuntster, we finally get to see Qrow (who is totally the best character in the show, don't me) for the first time, and… the reveal that Glynda Goodwitch is Slate's mother!**

 **Anyway, I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. Whether you did or you didn't, please leave a review and let me know, because I really do love hearing feedback, of any kind. If you fancy letting me know about some possible ideas you might have for later in the story, or just have questions for me (because I'll be happy to answer them), let me know in a review, drop me a PM or hit me up on Discord (my name for it is on my profile)!**

 **Next Time: Glynda's Past with Ironwood, Forever Fall**

 **Preview of Next Chapter:**

" _You try and make my son weak, or force him to be involved in your schemes," Raven spoke to Ozpin, completely ignoring Glynda's presence. "And I'll make sure you never see him again."_

 **Seeya! *leaves by crashing through the window* NOW I MUST RETURN TO SMASH ULTIMATE! BEAR, BIRD AND SKELETON, HERE I COME!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Anything you recognise isn't mine.**

"Wait, what?"

Slate didn't mean to sound as abrupt as he did when those two words left his mouth, a moment after what Glynda had said clicked in his mind.

"Y-you're my mom?" Slate blinked again, looking up at Glynda, who had dropped the glare and was looking at him with a softer look in her eyes. It was just now that the son of James Ironwood noticed that Glynda's eyes were extremely similar to his, both in colour and, funnily enough, the shape of their eyes. Though the shape of her eyes were slightly harder to decipher, since her eyes were behind glasses, while Slate's were not.

"I am." Glynda replied, simply. She continued to gaze steadily at Slate, but the glare that she had fixed him with, moments earlier, was gone. "You're... not upset?"

"Um..." To say that Slate was finding it difficult to get the words out would be an understatement, as well as accurate. "No, I'm not upset. But... but I have questions." he replied. "Several. I mean, mother? Can you grasp how weird that must sound to me, you just thrusting that on me?"

Glynda looked down for a moment, before looking back at Slate.

"Yes, I suppose I can." she replied. "I understand that you're likely shocked and confused, Slate-"

"I mean, I kinda am." Slate remarked, under his breath. "I would probably add 'curious' to that list of emotions I'm feeling as well."

"And I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have." the blonde Huntress continued speaking. "Within reason, obviously."

"Uhh, alright." Slate replied, looking down at himself before back at Glynda. "Why weren't you around when I was a child? Why did Dad never even talk about you, apart from the briefest of brief mentions?" He swallowed, before continuing. "What was going on between you and Dad before I was born, if I never saw, or even heard of, you before now?"

"Almost never talking about me sounds just like James." Glynda remarked, under her breath, but barely loud enough for Slate to hear, before she looked up, back at her son. "Those... those are all definitely valid questions, Slate." she spoke, calmly, while standing up and walking over to her son. "I suppose I'll start at the first question you asked."

Glynda pulled up a chair from the desk closest to Slate's, and sat down in it, beside her son. Said son resisted the urge to move away from Glynda, as she was pretty close to him for someone who, up until a matter of minutes ago, was Slate's teacher (in his own mind) and nothing else.

"General Ironwood and I..." Glynda spoke, slowly. "We were married, for several years in the past. For around ten years, with us having dated since around the time I graduated Atlas Academy. We were really happy together, for the most part. I mean, we didn't have much time to be together, with him being busy being promoted to top General of the Atlesian Military, and being Head of Atlas Academy, as well as the two Atlas Council seats that come with that, but we made do with what time we had, and we were happy."

"Well, that's good to hear." Slate replied. "What happened, then? I mean, as I said, I never met you when I was a kid, so something had to have happened, right?"

"Yes." Glynda replied, simply. "You could say that. We started running into problems in our marriage when, in response to certain events, James began taking measures in the Atlas military that I..." Glynda paused, as if she was thinking about what to say next, and choosing her words carefully. "I didn't agree with. At all. Things that I, and others, thought were inhumane. And wrong."

"What kind of measures?" Slate asked. Glynda looked back at him, the sharpness back in full force for a fraction of a second, before her eyes softened again.

"I'm afraid those are classified." she replied. "Plus, I haven't heard much about the specifics of those measures since before you were born, so I wouldn't know how things have progressed since then." she sighed. "Sorry."

"It's fine." Slate replied. He opened his mouth to say something else, but Glynda continued talking before the words could leave his throat.

"The measures that James began taking drove a serious wedge between us." Glynda spoke. "The fact that he stood 100% behind the actions that he was taking, and refused to take any advice from anyone that opposed his thoughts on how to do things, didn't help matters either. His intentions were always good, but-"

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions?" Slate spoke, before his mother could finish. "Hell is full of good meanings, but heaven is full of good works? I've heard Raven saying things like that a few times." He looked over at the window, then back at Glynda, whose face fell slightly at Slate's mention of Raven. However, she still nodded.

"Yes, you're right." She replied. "The wedge grew and grew over time, and things got to the point that we were both considering divorce." A saddened expression came over her face at the mention of the word, as she kept talking. "It was something we both didn't want to do, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't prevalent in both of our minds. Eventually, we came to the decision that we could try and have a child, as both of us had heard that it's brought couples closer together."

"And that's where I come in." Slate mumbled. "Or come out, right?" Glynda let out a quiet chuckle at Slate's little joke.

"Yeah." she replied. "Unfortunately, things didn't work, even with you in the picture, and we both decided to formally separate. Compared to other divorces I've heard about in the past, I could say that ours went relatively smoothly, except for one thing. And I'm sure you can guess what that thing is, and how it turned out." Slate didn't reply: instead electing to just look down at the floor for a few seconds.

He knew what Glynda was talking about: him, and what he could only assume was the custody battle between Glynda and Ironwood. And given that he spent the majority of his childhood with the head General of the Atlesian Military as his sole parental figure, instead of the Vice-Headmistress of Beacon Academy, Glynda didn't have to tell him the outcome.

"So..." he spoke, trailing off into silence for a couple of seconds, while still looking down at the ground. "What happened, after you lost custody?"

"I left Atlas." Glynda replied, simply. "It just held so many bad memories for me. They weighed down on me far too much to stay there and be reminded of what James has been doing." Her eyes turned to Slate, who was looking up at his mother with slightly widened eyes, causing Glynda to panic slightly.

"N-not in that way!" the blonde Huntress hurriedly added to what she said before, losing her composure slightly for the first time of the few minutes that she had been alone with Slate. "It's not like that, Slate. Not at all. Don't think for a second that I enjoy the fact that I left you with James. I can't even begin to tell you how much I've regretted it, and I can't say anything other than... I'm sorry." Glynda's breath began coming in shorter bursts, as if she was about to cry.

Slate sat, looking slightly awkwardly between Glynda and the floor. He couldn't understand why, but as he saw Glynda holding back the tears, he felt his own heart sinking in turn.

He didn't really know what to say in reply to Glynda basically pouring her heart out to him, coming a hair's breadth away from crying, but felt relieved when she levitated a box of tissues over to where they were both sitting, and began dabbing at her eyes, seemingly beginning to calm down.

"It's... okay." Slate replied. "I'm not angry. I just wanted to know. Makes it easier to accept if I know what went on. You get what I'm saying?"

"Yeah." Glynda replied, a smile breaking out on her face. "I do. And I agree you completely." She took a breath to calm herself further, before continuing to speak. "I'm also... slightly worried. You know the Vytal Festival that's happening in a few months?"

"Yeah." Slate replied. "You were the one that told me about it. During class. You think I've forgotten?"

"Well, James is arriving with his students for the festival." Glynda continued, ignoring Slate's light jab. "I'm worried that he'll try and take you back to Atlas with him once the Festival is over, and I-I don't want that to happen. At all." she looked back at Slate again. "I don't want to be separated from my son, so soon after I've met him again."

"I don't want that either." Slate replied, very quietly, but not so quiet that Glynda couldn't hear him. The teacher's smile grew, and she stood up.

"Good." she replied. "Anyway, you're... you're free to leave, if you want, Slate."

She walked back to her desk and sat down at it, just as Slate got up, silently walked to the door, opened it, and left his mother alone, closing the door behind him.

A few minutes later, the door to Glynda's classroom opened again, and as opposed to her son, her boss, Professor Ozpin, walked through the door, and saw her taking deep breaths while trying (and seemingly, failing) to hold back the tears that she had been holding back when Slate was in the room with her.

"I trust that things went well, Glynda?" the grey-haired Headmaster asked, taking a sip from his thermos.

"You-you could say, Ozpin." Glynda replied, looking up at Ozpin as he stood in front of her. "What I feared would happen- well- didn't happen."

"It tends not to." Ozpin replied, sitting down on one of the tables. "I had a feeling that Mr. Branwen wouldn't push you away, if you handled the situation like I figured you would."

Glynda didn't verbally reply, simply electing to nod in agreement.

"You always did say that the hardest step in building a relationship was the first step, Professor." she remarked, drying her eyes and levitating the used tissues into the bin with her Semblance, as Ozpin nodded.

"That I did, yes." he replied, before turning around and looking at the window (which was open) momentarily, before looking back at Glynda. "Though I'm not exactly sure that some people would agree."

Right on cue, Ozpin and Glynda both heard the caw of a raven, with one of the birds flapping in through the open window. Both Professors watched it, with calmness and surprise practically written all over their respective faces, as it dived down behind a desk, and transformed out of sight... into Raven Branwen, who stood up and glared at both of them.

"How long did you know?" she asked, her crimson eyes shifting from Glynda to Ozpin.

"Since I first walked in." Ozpin replied. "You never did learn to conceal your presence, even if you're good at physically hiding yourself, Raven."

Raven's glare intensified tenfold, as Glynda spoke up.

"What are you doing here, Raven?" she asked, reaching for the riding crop that she kept in her boot and mentally preparing herself for a fight, as Raven had her scabbard full of Dust-blades, complete with sword-handle, with her.

"Just came here to see how you introduced yourself to my son, Goodwitch." Raven replied, calmly, while making no gestures that suggested that she was about to reach for her sword. "I have to say, it went differently from how I expected it to. I figured, given his strength, you'd try and rope him and Eirwen into Ozpin's little scheme, which would end up in them being sacrificed. Just like you've done with so many others."

"Do you really think that poorly of me, Raven?" Ozpin asked, holding a hand up in an attempt to pacify Glynda, who had stood up, looking like she'd like nothing more than to tear Raven limb from limb at what she had just insinuated.

"I wouldn't ask questions you already know the answer to if I were you, Ozpin." Raven replied, not even looking at her former Headmaster. "Nor would I try and throw innocent people into _her_ line of fire without them fully knowing what's going on."

"Speaking of that," Ozpin cut across Raven as she was just about to start speaking again. "What would it take to change your mind. I know you think that she's unbeatable, but-"

Raven didn't even bother to stay and listen to whatever Ozpin was about to propose. In one fluid motion, she simply grabbed the handle of her sword, pulled it out, swung it to create a portal, and disappeared through it. Once the portal closed, Ozpin looked silently back at Glynda, who had sat down, taking deep breaths. However, her anger at Raven was still palpable.

 **Line Break**

A sword whizzed through the air and clashed with a golden gauntlet, causing sparks to shoot off of both weapons. Slate, dressed in casual gear and carrying his two swords, along with his wing-pack strapped to his back, back-flipped away from Yang, who pulled her fist back to throw a punch, and fire a shell from Ember Celica towards him.

It was sparring class the next day, with Professor Goodwitch, and close to the end of the lesson. Several sanctioned battles had taken place throughout the last hour, all under the watchful eye of Slate's mom (Slate had only divulged that fact to his three teammates, and no-one else): Pyrrha vs. Azzurro (handily won by Pyrrha), Lapis vs. Ruby (an extremely even match that Lapis managed to come out on top in, once she'd gotten her hand on Ruby in order to disable her Semblance), Sky vs. Jaune (a battle that Jaune actually managed to win) and now Slate vs. Yang, a battle that Slate had been on top of for most of the match.

After activating his wings to float out of the way of the Ember Celica shell that flew his way, Slate looked to his Scroll, checking his Aura level: 92%.

"HEY!" Yang yelled from across the arena, firing another shot at her hovering opponent. "Don't ignore me in the middle of a fight, Slate!" Slate looked up, just in time to see the shot fly into his left wing and explode, sending bits of metal and carbon-fibre all over the arena, shocking the adoptive son of Raven enough for him to drop down onto the ground and retract his wings back into the pack on his back.

Or, at least, try to. His right wing retracted no problem, as it was undamaged, but the left one got momentarily stuck as he tried to retract it, leaving some of it trailing along the ground as he dashed at Yang, readying his swords for more attacks.

"How's this for 'not ignoring you'?" Slate asked, ducking under Yang's punch and slashing at her midsection with his right sword, following it up with an upward-diagonal swing with his left sword, along with a roundhouse kick to Yang's face that sent her flying backwards. However, Yang righted herself in mid-air and thrust her fists towards the ground, firing shots and using the recoil to keep herself airborne, before doing the same with shots fired behind her, allowing her to rocket towards her 'brother' at high speed, at around the time that Slate's left wing finally seemed to right itself and retract back into its pack.

As Yang descended towards Slate, he quickly sheathed his swords and reached out with both hands to grab Yang's outstretched arm. He then stepped to the side, and used the momentum to swing Yang down onto the ground, before swinging her around in a full circle and bodily THROWING her away, where she crashed into the wall and slid to the ground, dazed. Her Aura flashed yellow for a couple of seconds, then faded away.

"And that's the match!" Glynda stepped into the arena as the lights came on. "As you can see, students, Miss Xiao Long's Aura has... completely broken, meaning that the fight is over and that Mr. Branwen is the winner. Mr. Branwen-" Glynda looked to her son. "Please try not to get so... carried away, during combat situations, next time."

"Right, right." Slate replied, stretching. "Sorry. Just wanted to make sure that she couldn't get up. You know, like in the real world?"

Glynda narrowed her eyes, but didn't reply.

"Those wings of yours looked like they could use some repairs." she observed. "As your winning streak in these lessons has been exemplary, I'll let you leave early so you can fix them up."

"Thanks, Professor." Slate replied, walking over to his seat in the stands, picking up his bag, and walking out of the room, shutting the door behind him. The two minutes that it took him to walk to the workshop passed in silence, with the room being empty when he entered.

Slate slung the pack that contained his wings onto the nearest table and opened it, pulling out the left wing and inspecting the damage that had been done to it.

"Motherfucker." he muttered, under his breath. "Gonna need to buy some more carbon-fibre for that."

His musings were interrupted when the door to the workshop opened, and his three teammates walked in. They immediately spotted Slate, and walked over to him, chatting amongst themselves.

"How the hell is Pyrrha so good? It's like she was controlling me, as well as herself, in that fight!" Azzurro bemoaned. "I swear to the Gods, she's damn near invincible!"

"Agreed." Lapis replied. "I know I would've lost to Ruby if I hadn't managed to disable her Semblance." she added. "She was running rings around me."

"Yes, we know, Lapis." Eirwen replied. "But at least you were dodging her attacks. Well, most of them, at least. Hey, Slate. How bad's the wing damage?"

"Hey." Slate replied, allowing his girlfriend to wrap her arms around him from behind and deliver a kiss to his neck. "I'll have to get some more carbon-fibre to put on this wing. Lucky we're free for the rest of the day after Oobleck's lesson after lunch."

"Yeah." Eirwen replied. "Can you get some for me, too? As well as some more hair-dye, I've been running low recently."

"Sure." Slate nodded, before turning to Lapis and Azzurro. "You want anything from Vale?"

"I'm good." Azzurro replied. "How about you, Lapis?"

"I think I'll need some more Dust." Lapis replied, holding up her own weapon. "Fire Dust, please."

"Noted." Slate replied, as he turned back to his pack, and closed it up, before making to walk out of the workshop, before Eirwen called him back.

"Hang on a second, Slate." Slate stopped, and turned. "The three of us were talking, during your fight with Yang. About the Vytal Festival."

"Oh?" Slate blinked. "What about it?"

"Well, we were talking about whether we should put our names up to compete in the tournament for it, or not." Azzurro replied. "I think we should."

"Why?" Slate asked. "I don't see what the big deal is regarding it, really. Just seems like a colossal dick-measuring contest for the Heads of the four Huntsman Academies, really. And besides, you heard Goodwitch: if we competed, we'd be representing Vale. A Kingdom that, out of the four of us, three of us aren't even from."

Lapis shrugged her shoulders.

"That didn't stop Team RWBY from rushing to sign up the second your mom gave them the chance to." she replied. "I mean, only Ruby and Yang are from Vale, Weiss is from Atlas like you, and Blake… uh… I actually don't know which Kingdom she's from."

"Strictly speaking, she isn't from any Kingdom." Eirwen spoke up. "She's from Menagerie, formerly colony of Mistral. Same as me, really."

"You related or something?" Lapis asked. Eirwen ignored her teammate as she turned to Slate.

"I'm with Azzurro, Slate. I think it'd be fun to compete, even if only once. Besides, it'll only be as much about Kingdoms as you want to make it. But if you don't want to, then I get it."

Slate remained silent as he met the gazes of his three teammates, before sighing.

"Let's put it to a vote, I guess." he replied. "All those for competing in the tournament?"

Azzurro and Lapis immediately raised their hands. Eirwen's eyes shifted from them to Slate for a couple of seconds, before she slowly raised her hand as well.

"Three to one, Slate. Sorry." Azzurro replied, putting his hand down and patting his team leader on the shoulder.

"Fine." Slate replied, jerking his shoulder away from Azzurro, and picking up his wing-pack. "I'll talk to Professor Peach about it after we've had lunch. Just let me put this back in our room." he added, gesturing to the wing-pack in his hand.

"Right." Eirwen replied. "See you at lunch." she kissed her boyfriend again, before walking out of the room with Slate, Azzurro and Lapis, and turning left (along with Azzurro and Lapis) towards the Beacon cafeteria (pleasant smells were making their way throughout the school, indicating that food was being cooked for them, while Slate turned right, towards the dorms.

 **Line Break**

"So, prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution, more commonly known as the Faunus War-" Dr. Oobleck, one of the teachers at Beacon Academy, went through his lecture to the first-year Huntsmen and Huntresses-in-training while zipping around the classroom like a certain blue hedgehog on super-steroids, before coming to a stop at his desk to refill his thermos flask. "Humankind was quite, _quite_ adamant about centralising Remnant's Faunus population in Menagerie." he took another sip from his flask. "Now! While this must feel like ancient history to many of you, it is imperative to remember that these are relatively recent events!"

The entire class (with some notable exceptions, like Cardin (who was looking like he'd rather be anywhere else) and Jaune (who was half-asleep)) found themselves getting good exercise in their necks as they followed their immensely speedy teacher zip and zoom around the classroom.

"Why, the repercussions of the uprising can still be seen to this day!" Oobleck kept talking, and kept zipping, before coming to a momentary stop to take a sip of his coffee. "Now, have any of you been subjugated or discriminated because of your Faunus heritage?"

Eirwen, who was sat next to Slate, raised her hand. After a couple of seconds, Slate could see Blake doing the same.

"Dreadful." Oobleck shook his head, as Eirwen and Blake put their hands down. "Simply dreadful. My sympathies to you both. Remember students, it is precisely this kind of ignorance which breeds violence." he took another sip of his coffee. "I mean- I mean-" it seemed that Oobleck was so enthusiastic about the subject that he was teaching (or rather, just so quick in getting his words out, that his mouth was moving faster than his brain) "I mean just look at what happened to the White Fang!"

Slate shot a sideways look at Eirwen, whose expression became momentarily sour at the mention of the White Fang.

He remembered Eirwen confiding in him her past before she found herself picked up and adopted by the Branwen Tribe: as the daughter of the White Fang's first High Leader, Ghira Belladonna, and a mistress of his, she was privy to all the inner goings-on of the organisation, which was initially created as a peaceful activist organisation that would work to improve relations between Humans and Faunus (and to improve the civil rights of the latter).

However, when results weren't as immediate as most members of the first incarnation of the White Fang wanted them to be, they became less peaceful, and a more violent faction of the organisation, led by Sienna Khan, rose up and began acting independently of the rapidly-weakening main sect that Ghira tried to hold together, to the point that Ghira surrendered to Sienna's faction, which became the new main sect as she took over as High Leader.

Almost immediately after, Eirwen chose to leave the White Fang, and eventually chose to run away from home in order to escape the wrath of the extremists. After making her way to mainland Anima, Eirwen was found and taken in by the Branwen Tribe, a few months after Slate was found by Raven, with the rest, as they say, being history.

"Now!" Oobleck's voice jolted Slate out of his momentary stupor. "Which one of you young scholars can tell me what many theorists believe to be the turning point in the third year of the War?" Slate knew the answer, but decided not to speak up. However, someone evidently had decided to put their hand up, as Oobleck asked "Yes?" to someone behind him.

"The Battle of Fort Castle." Slate could hear Weiss' voice behind him.

"Precisely!" Oobleck seemed to jump with happiness from the simple fact that someone got a question right in his classroom. "And, who can tell me the advantage that the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?"

Out of the corner of Slate's eye, Jaune jolted upwards. Evidently someone (or something) had woken him up. Oobleck noticed this, and dashed over to Jaune's desk, standing right in front of him.

"Mr. Arc!" he called out. "Finally contributing to class! This is excellent, excellent! What is the answer?"

"Uhh..." Jaune replied, clearly not knowing what the fuck he was talking about. "The answer... the advantage of the Faunus... had over that guy's stuff..."

Eirwen lightly jabbed Slate in the stomach with her elbow. When Slate looked to his girlfriend, she pointed up at Pyrrha, who was clearly making an attempt to coach Jaune on what to say. When Slate looked back at Eirwen, he could see her holding back the urge to burst out in giggles.

"Uh..." Jaune spoke, again, the cogs in his head turning unbearably slowly, before he came to his answer, one which he was certain was correct. "BINOCULARS!"

Oobleck merely sipped at his coffee, while half the class (Eirwen included) took that as their cue to burst out into laughter. Slate merely crackled a smile, as Jaune's answer was moderately funny, given what the ACTUAL answer was.

Pyrrha merely facepalmed.

"Very funny, Mr. Arc." Oobleck sighed, zipping back to his desk for another refill. "Cardin? Perhaps you would care to share your thoughts on the subject?"

"Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than it is to train a soldier." Cardin replied, smirking as he looked disparagingly over at Eirwen, who hissed under her breath.

"Is that an admission that you're into bestiality, Cardin?" Slate retorted, loudly. "Gods, dude. I know you're a dick, but no need to tell us what you like sticking it into."

The entire class (except Cardin, who turned as orange as his hair from rage) burst out into hysterical laughter.

"Quiet, quiet!" Oobleck called. "Mr. Branwen, please don't get involved in this." Pyrrha put her hand up (while using the other one to stifle her giggles at Slate's remark). "Miss Nikos?"

"I have the answer." the red-headed first-year replied. "It's night-vision. Many types of Faunus are known to have better eyesight than humans in the dark."

"General Lagune was inexperienced, and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep." Blake continued, as Oobleck nodded. "His massive army was outmatched, and the General was captured." Blake turned to Cardin, a look equally as disparaging as the one that he had given Eirwen on her face. "Perhaps, if he'd paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure."

Cardin growled and jumped up from his desk, fist clenched. However, Oobleck spoke up before a fight could break out.

"Mr. Winchester, please take your seat. You AND Mr. Arc can see me after class for additional readings. Now, moving on!"

Slate tuned out for the rest of the lesson after that, only speaking up to answer a question regarding the initial formation of the White Fang in the aftermath of the Faunus War. Once the lesson was over, he was among the first out of the door, with Eirwen, Azzurro and Lapis not too far behind.

"I think I'm gonna get an hour or two in the gym before heading to Vale." Slate informed his team while stretching his arms. "Might as well, since it's only, like 2:15pm."

"Fair enough." Eirwen replied, stretching herself and turning to Azzurro and Lapis. "Come on, you two. I heard Ruby got her hands on a copy of Grimm Reaper: Volume 4."

Lapis looked more excited than Eirwen or Azzurro when Slate's three teammates walked away in the opposite direction to their leader, who made a beeline straight for Beacon's gym.

After spending a couple of hours in there working out and sparring with combat-androids, Slate re-dressed himself and headed down to Vale, a list on his Scroll.

'Right. So... carbon-fibre.' he thought to himself, looking at the list. 'Some hair-dye for Eirwen, and some fire-Dust for Lapis.'

Just as he was about to put his Scroll back in his pocket, it vibrated as he got a text from an unknown number.

 _Can you get a copy of Grimm Reaper Volume 4 please? Lapis wants it so she won't have to go to Ruby to watch it in future. This is Azzurro btw._

"I guess I'm the team shopper, today." Slate muttered, as he stepped into the shop 'Disc Continued', to look for the movie that Azzurro wanted him to buy for Lapis, while also adding Azzurro into his contacts on his Scroll.

Finding and purchasing the movie that his teammates wanted wasn't too hard, and moving onto another item on his list (that being the hair-dye) was even less hard, given that Slate had brought enough cans of the stuff to know which brand of white hair-dye Eirwen preferred. Given that there was more of it available than there were in shops in Mistral that Slate went to from time to time, he elected to buy four cans of the stuff.

Next was the carbon-fibre, sheets of which Slate also brought four of. Strictly speaking, he only really needed one, but Eirwen had said that she wanted some, and now that he was in Vale, the idea of having spares of something (a luxury that was very hard to afford back in the Branwen Tribe) appealed to him greatly.

After thanking the shop-owner and handing him the money that he asked for, Slate left the shop, with the fibre-sheets, hair-dye and movie in a bag slung over his shoulder. He turned down a street-corner towards a Dust shop (the largest Dust shop in the area), and while walking towards it, he heard passing conversation from a couple of Faunus passing in the opposite direction to him.

"You catch how many cameras there are?"

"Yeah, only four. Two on the bottom floor, two on the top. Both only covers the entrance/exit and the cash register. Kinda crappy cameras, too, barely worth worrying about-"

"Are you barking mad? Cameras are always worth worrying about, you fucking idiot! What if some shithead recognises us from the cameras?"

"Alright, fine. We take out the cameras at the start of the operation-"

Slate widened his eyes, and turned his head slightly towards the two Faunus, one Dog and one Deer, as they continued their conversation (which seemed to be about an upcoming robbery of the shop), with it trailing away from his ears as he stopped on the pavement next to the Dust shop.

Getting an idea, Slate stepped into a secluded alleyway and stretched out his right arm, which began to glow a greyish-colour, as he focused his Aura into and around it. After a couple of seconds of this, a chunk of his Aura physically broke off of his body, and changed shape into that of a bird. A raven, to be specific, which opened its mouth to give out a silent caw, and flapped its wings.

This was Slate's Semblance (nicknamed Totem), which was the ability to manifest an avatar of his spirit animal (which he had nicknamed 'Rae') out of half of his Aura. This avatar, once outside Slate's body, would obey each and every one of his commands, and would protect Slate whenever he got into a combat situation.

However, a tradeoff of this was that, while Slate's spirit animal was outside his body, he only had half of the Aura that he would usually have to protect himself with, meaning that he had to go careful whenever he manifested Rae in a combat situation. On the other hand, Slate could summon Rae back inside himself, in order to receive a regenerative boost of Aura.

Slate was also able to see and hear through Rae's eyes and ears, but this required intense focus, as he'd only started working on this ability.

"Those two Faunus I heard talking about robbing this Dust shop." Slate muttered to Rae, while tapping the wall of the Dust shop he stood beside. "Find them. Follow them. Listen in on their plan. Then report back to me."

Rae nodded, and flapped its wings a couple of times to lift itself up and away from Slate, who sat down in the alleyway, out of sight and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath, and focused on his Aura, on Rae, as it rose above the buildings and began to slowly fly over the streets of Vale.

After about ten seconds, Slate began to see through the eyes of Rae. It was slightly disorienting, having your senses of sight and hearing being basically plucked out of you and dumped into your spirit animal,

Rae turned its head from side to side, looking for the two Faunus that Slate had seen earlier, and eventually picked them out (easily identifying them by their dog-ears and antlers, respectively). They looked to be headed towards a secluded-looking warehouse, close by the docks. They headed inside, and Rae followed, silent as a ghost, swooping up to the rafters and nestling there. The room had a nice echo to it (demonstrated extremely well by an orange-haired man in a bowler-hat talking to four other Faunus, with a small girl with pink and brown hair, carrying a parasol, by his side).

Slate's vision (through Rae) flickered slightly as he felt the rumble of a large truck passing him by on the street, affecting his concentration slightly. However, he managed to refocus, and his vision (through Rae) returned.

"Alright, so how many cameras?" the orange-haired man asked, idly twirling a cane in one hand.

"Four, boss." the dog Faunus replied. "None of them cover the merch, so if we're smart-"

"Leave the smarts to the guys that don't slobber all the time, puppy." the man replied, using his cane to rub one of the dog Faunus' ears, before turning around and beginning to walk away. "Good work on the intel-collecting, by the way. I'll make sure to throw you a bone later."

Growling, the dog Faunus drew a sword and rushed towards Roman, intent on attacking him, but before he could go two steps, the small girl swung her parasol at the dog Faunus, hitting him in the stomach and causing him to double over in shock and pain. Before the guy could get back up, the girl had pulled out the handle of her parasol, revealing it to be a long, cylindrical blade which she used to stab the Faunus through the back, killing him instantly.

'Yeesh.' Slate thought, as the girl pulled her blade out of the Faunus' back, shook it to free it of blood, and sheathed it back into her parasol. 'That girl is brutal. Kinda cute though, not gonna lie.'

"Remember, everyone, we move tomorrow night!" the hat-wearing man called, not even looking back as three more Faunus came into view, and all expressed visual discomfort at the sight of one of their comrades dead on the floor, with a stab-wound in his back. "Neo, come along. And someone clean up the mess on the floor."

Slate's vision (through Rae) faded out, as his vision returned to his regular body. Standing up and holding his head for a couple of moments, as he felt slightly dizzy, he mentally commanded Rae to come back to him as he heard his Scroll vibrating, indicating that he had gotten a call. He pulled his Scroll out of his pocket and powered it on to see that Eirwen was showing up on the caller I.D, so he answered the call as Rae returned to him, swooping down and into his chest, restoring his Aura to full capacity.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Slate." Eirwen's voice could be heard through Slate's Scroll. "Just calling to ask if you'll be back soon."

"Huh?" Slate blinked, before what Eirwen said went through his head. "Oh, yeah. I will be. Just gotta get the Dust for Lapis, then I'll be back in, like, half an hour."

"Cool." Eirwen replied. She then hung up, while Slate stretched, and walked into the Dust shop to buy the Fire-Dust for Lapis.

 **Line Break**

It was the next day, and in lieu of their triple-period of sparring, Glynda had elected to take the entire class of first-years out to Forever Fall, a mountainous forest on the northern outskirts of Vale. The trees were very much unlike any other forest on Remnant, as the leaves they produced were red (as opposed to the uniform green) all year around. It was theorized that the reasoning behind this was because of a large gathering of Dust beneath the surface, but this had never been proven.

"Just a reminder, students." Glynda called, as she led the four teams: Team RWBY at the front, with Team SEAL, Nora, Pyrrha and Ren in the middle, and Team CRDL (accompanied by Jaune, for some strange reason) bringing up the rear. "Though the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful, we are not here to sightsee. Professor Peach requires samples of the red sap that forms within the trees deep inside this forest, and has asked me to bring you here for that objective." She came to a stop, as did the sixteen students behind her, before pulling out a jar of red fluid-looking stuff.

"Each of you is to gather one jar of sap. However, this forest is full of the Creatures of Grimm, so make sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here at 4 o'clock. Dismissed."

Slate silently led his teammates to the east side of the forest, smiling momentarily at Ruby as she waved to him, while she led her team to the north side of the forest, with Nora, Pyrrha and Ren going west, and Team CRDL (plus Jaune) going south.

"What do you think's up with Jaune?" Azzurro asked. "Has anyone else noticed that he's started hanging out a lot more with Cardin and his team, more than with his own team? You know, the one that he's supposed to lead?"

"I don't think there's anyone in school that hasn't noticed that, Azzurro." Lapis replied, as she pulled out one of the jars that had been provided to them by Glynda before they got off the airship, ten minutes before. "Just like Slate hanging out with himself more than with us."

"Better no-one at all than a bunch of bullies." Slate replied, as he began tying his jar to a large tree that he'd picked out, before walking over to Eirwen and helping her do the same. "Plus, what's wrong with just liking your alone time?"

"Nothing, really." Lapis replied, as she finished tying her jar to a tree that she'd picked out for sap-extraction. "Hey Slate, can I borrow one of your swords to hack into this tree?"

Slate's method of reply was to detach one of his swords from the belt that he wore, and to toss it over to Lapis, who caught it neatly, unsheathed it while thanking her leader, and beginning to hack at the bark of the tree. Slate and Eirwen did the same with their swords, while Azzurro made slightly slower progress with the edge of his discus.

Once they had all done the hacking, and sap was pouring into all four jars at a slow, but steady, manner, the four members of Team SEAL were sat around against non-hacked trees, in peaceful silence until Eirwen spoke up.

"So Slate, what did you say last night about a Dust shop possibly being robbed tonight?"

"Oh, that?" Slate looked over at his white-haired girlfriend, before casting a momentary glance at his jar of sap. "Well, I saw a couple of Faunus heading back to a warehouse by the docks, and talked about cameras, merch and 'moving tomorrow night'. Which is, uh, now tonight, I guess. They were with a couple of humans."

"That sounds horrifically stereotypical." Lapis remarked, casting a glance at her own jar of sap before looking back at her teammates and tossing the sword that she'd borrowed back to Slate. "Whoever you saw must've seen way too many gangster movies."

"I'm going to assume that that's meant to be an insult directed at whoever I saw." Slate replied. "But you're right." he turned to Eirwen. "Think it could be the White Fang, Eirwen?"

"I wouldn't put it past them to have stationed a group of operatives in Vale." Eirwen replied. "There's small groups like that in every major city on Remnant. Except Vacuo, I think. Though them working with a human doesn't sound right. Especially not one that would say what you say he said, Slate."

"It definitely doesn't make much sense." Azzurro replied, leaning back against a tree and sighing. "Though somehow, I think the fact that they'll be robbing a Dust shop tonight is more important than them working with a human."

"You're right." Eirwen replied, nodding. "You think we should go and try to stop them? I'm certain that we could take them."

"Agreed!" Lapis cried, clenching her fist. "Let's fuck those bastards up! No offence, Eirwen." Eirwen sniggered as Azzurro also voiced his agreement with what Eirwen said.

"Not so sure about 'we' if you're including yourself in that, Eirwen." Slate replied, immediately. "Aren't you a pretty big target for the Fang right about now?"

"Yeah." Eirwen replied, whipping her head around to fix her boyfriend with a hard look. "So?"

"So," Slate sighed. "If we were to show up at the Dust shop tonight as the White Fang are robbing it, with you there, they might just drop the Dust and go for you, and there's a chance, small as it might be, of you getting overwhelmed and taken by them." Slate looked down at the ground, covered in red leaves from the trees up above. "And I could never live with myself if that happened on my watch."

Eirwen's look softened slightly, as she looked down at the ground as well, and Team SEAL fell into silence once again, with the only disturbance being Lapis getting up to take her jar of sap off of the tree, as it was full.

Slate, Eirwen and Azzurro did the same, all within a few minutes of each other, and the quartet remained in silence, walking slowly back to the rendevous point, until Azzurro spoke up.

"Hang on, I just thought of something."

"What?"

Slate, Eirwen and Lapis all looked at their blue-haired teammate, who blinked.

"I mean, we all want to stop the Dust shop from being robbed, right?"

"I don't think that was ever in doubt." Slate replied. "I mean, I don't want to have to pay more Lien for Dust than I have to. Where are you going with this?"

"Well, Eirwen is the only one in the team that has wings that aren't broken, right?" Azzurro continued. "So, can't she do something like, I dunno, do recon from up-high while Slate, Lapis and I do the main Fang-stopping force on the ground?"

"I..." Slate paused. "That could work." he replied, slowly. "I mean, if Eirwen's okay with not being on the front lines of the inevitable fight."

"I am. To an extent." Eirwen replied. "I mean, it beats just sitting in our dorm and waiting for you all to come back."

"Then it's agreed." Lapis replied. "Eirwen can get her wings once we get back to Beacon, we'll head to Vale, and-"

Lapis' declaration was hurriedly shushed by the other three team members when they came within earshot of Glynda. The purple-haired Huntress-in-training fell silent as she and her teammates handed their four jars of sap to Glynda, and walked off. Though they didn't say a word to each other regarding what was going to go down tonight, they all knew in their heads what was going to go down.

Call it team-wide intuition or something.

 **Damn! Longest Son of the General chapter so far, by a long shot! That should serve as at least part of an apology for not updating this fic for three months, right? Sorry for that, by the way. Nothing else to offer up other than I wanted to work out where I was going to take this fic in the long-term, that it would work out with what's being put out in RWBY Volume 7 (contender for best Volume so far, by the way), and that I've been busy with college and my other works: particularly Nephalem and the now-discontinued Symbol's Son.**

 **Sorry about that, by the way.**

 **Anyway, that was the seventh chapter of Son of the General! We've heard about Glynda's past, had confirmation on whether or not Team SEAL will be involved in the Vytal Festival Tournament, seen Slate's Semblance (hope you all like it, it'll feature quite a lot in future chapters), and got set-up for shit that's going to go down between Team SEAL and the White Fang. By the way, regarding Slate's future harem: I'm considering replacing Velvet with another fan favourite RWBY girl.**

 **Before you try and guess which one, all I have to say about it is... ice cream over rabbit stew every day of the fucking decade.**

 **Anyway, I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. Whether you did or you didn't, please leave a review and let me know, because I really do love hearing feedback, of any kind. If you fancy letting me know about some possible ideas you might have for later in the story, or just have questions for me (because I'll be happy to answer them), let me know in a review, drop me a PM or hit me up on Discord (my name for it is on my profile)!**

 **Next Time: Team SEAL vs. White Fang, Slate Meets Ozpin**

 **Preview of Next Chapter:**

" _With all due respect, Ozpin," Glynda remarked. "I don't think that was the most productive meeting in the world."_

 **Seeya!**


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